Hidden in Plain Sight: Konoha no Kīroi Senkō
by Aengus
Summary: What if nothing was as it seemed? If you're looking to hide something, hide it in plain sight. FemNaruto, major AU. Sequel now up
1. Revalations

Sadly I do not own Naruto. Oh well… but I can still play around with the plot.

This is very much an AU story. If you don't like it, I really don't care. This came into being from a request from a friend and now co-author, not to mention an AP English assignment.

Hidden in Plain Sight

My dear readers, we come to look upon something…

Extraordinary…

Here is a small child, the offspring of the great Yondaime Hokage, the greatest of the kages of the Konoha Village, and yet, this child is the single most detested and despised creature in all of Konoha. You see, dear readers, before the Yondaime gave his life for the village and his child, he sealed a great demon inside of the child. The Yondaime sealed the great nine-tailed fox demon, Kyuubi no Kitsune, who had been attacking the Hidden Village of the Leaf, into his only child.

Though that child is hated and despised, it does not lash out at the villagers with the immense power of the demon fox that resided with in the seal. Instead, this child has always been a kind and gentle soul, always with a huge smile, no matter how fake it was. The child was always loud and easily excited, there was never an unkind gesture or word that came from the child to anybody, even the Kyuubi was treated with kindness.

Yes… the child knew of the demon.

The child found out while being attacked by several of the villagers. There it was, curled into a small ball while blows and kicks rained down on to it from above. They were cutting the child, using kunai, broken bottles, knives, and other sharp instruments that they had either brought or had found on the street. Then the pain stopped, and the child would remember being wrapped up in a warm, furry embrace and being carried off, away from the pain. Those who had attacked the child would later swear that a large red fox had come out of thin air, drove of their attack, transform into a very handsome young man with fox ears and tail, pick the child up, and the two of them disappeared into the night. Though, to their disappointment, the child was back in a week; the child would never tell where it had been.

Ever since then, there have been rumors flying about the Hidden Village of the Leaf, so many, in fact, that even those who knew the truth had their stories distorted. If there was a person in the world who cared to know the whole truth, that person would have to find the current Hokage, the elderly Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage of Konoha, now only he truly knows the whole story.

It had taken years, but finally the child's name became known throughout the village, it was Naruto. Some of the villagers would wonder why the child had no family name but then there were those who still thought that the child should be put down like an animal. The Sandaime refused to allow for the execution or exiling of the child, so he gave it a family name and thus Naruto became _Kitsune no Naruto_, or to those few who were kind to the child, 'Naru-chan.'

Naruto is a bit different than most other people. Oh sure, he has the normal two eyes, a deep sky blue, soft blonde hair, two arms, and two legs… This is where things start to get a bit weird. Instead of normal ears, Naruto's head has two fox ears jutting out of sides of its head, each ear was a reddish orange color with a white tip. Those ears plus a very fluffy fox tail that was almost a meter long at the child's very young 4-years, a tail that was the same colors as the ears, this tail was as flexible and fully controllable as a cat tail or monkey tail. These are the reasons that Naruto is hated by most of the villagers.

The years of passed, mostly without incident, though there was that one time when the child was again assaulted by some very high class nobles and was almost raped if it was not for the mysterious man again, those nobles were never seen again by mortal eyes…

Now our little Naru-chan has become thirteen years old and nothing much has changed, or that is what most people think. Our Naruto has just now hit the onset of puberty, and this is also the first out-of-the-village mission with his genin team, consisting of Uchia Sasuke and Haruno Sakura and their sensei, the jounin Hatake Kakashi.

Nothing really has changed about out Naruto, the kindness, the same smile that never reached the eyes, and the loudness. Though there was some deep dark secret that Naruto kept from the rest of the team, and it would be years before Sasuke or Sakura would notice anything… odd…

Sasuke would be the first to notice that there was something odd about his team mate, there was always the shimmer of a GenJutsu Chakra about his team mate. At first he passed this off as some prank or the like, and dismissed it for three years, after all he had to deal with Orochimaru and his evil brother Itachi; but he continued to notice the shimmer was always there. He mentioned it Sakura, and after a few weeks of puzzling the whole problem over in their minds, the two of them decided to take the matter up with their teacher, Kakashi.

When asked, Kakashi, became quite nervous and stuttered that he had no idea what they were talking about, and when pressed further Kakashi left in the puff of smoke that he always did when leaving any team event, evidently the Jounin knew more than he let on.

Sasuke and Sakura set out to find Naruto; little did they know that they were going to get way more than they bargained for.

Naruto was in the forest, alone, again. Naruto would always come to the forest for some peace and quiet, after the war with the Sound many things had changed. Thoughts flooded the genin's mind, eventually all thoughts turned to that fateful night before the chuunin exams in which the Sandaime was killed.

_Flashback_

_Naruto had been called to the Hokage's office. _

_There really wasn't must left, that the Hokage could say that would shock Naruto's mind anymore. Oh, sure the Yondaime was his father, sure the village hates him because of the Kyuubi… There wasn't anything else._

_The door to the office opened and there was the sad face of the Sandaime looking down at him. "Leave…" the old man ordered the ANBU that guarded his door, which they did._

_The old man beckoned for the teen to come into the office and to sit at his normal chair, once the child was seated, the old man sighed heavily as he too sat down in his chair behind the desk._

_"Naruto…" started the old man, but he trailed off. _

_Naruto looked at Hokage, but didn't say anything, the teen just looked at Sarutobi with curious eyes, the kind gentle soul was there again._

_"Now is the time for the last secret that your father kept from you…"_

_"I already know what you're about to say, old man…" said Naruto, there was definitely something odd about his voice, it had a different pitch to it. _

_ But the old man appeared to not have heard anything that the teen spoke, he squeezed his eyes shut and barreled onward. "Your real name is Uzumaki Noriko… The daughter of the Yondaime…"_

_There was no response to that, the Hokage opened his eyes to see Naru-_Noriko_ sitting there in the chair completely relaxed and at ease, there was no emotion on the girl's face._

_"And your point is…?" asked Noriko, the smile was gone and so was the beginnings of the male voice that had always been there. Now the voice was very much feminine, and his-her body had become smaller more petite and the beginnings of curves on her body. _

_"B-but how…? How did you know…?" Asked that Hokage, clearly startled that the child knew of the GenJutsu that had surrounded him-her._

_"Kyuubi-chan told me…" said Noriko, as if she was stating the obvious. "Kyuubi-chan's been using Chakra well before this village was formed, so of course she would know about the GenJutsu. Wouldn't you have figured this out by now, after all Kyuubi-chan is a demon, so she would know all about it…"_

_The Sandaime looked at the girl in front of him, his eyes held surprise and yet understanding. _

_And that was that._

_End Flashback_

That was almost three years ago, and now Noriko was alone with her thoughts. Tsunade was the Hokage now, and she knew of her secret and the reasons that she kept the GenJutsu in place. Though in all honesty Tsunade knew that he had the GenJutsu up the minute that she met her, throughout the whole mission with Jiraiya, Noriko was disguised as Naruto so that there wouldn't be any sort of reports of an odd girl in orange that might eventually reach the village of the leaf. While the three women were alone, Tsunade and her assistant, Shizune, asked about the jutsu, let's just say that that conversation was really awkward…

In the last three years since Tsunade had become the Hokage, their relationship had grown, if people could see the two of them, Noriko without her henge, they would call them sisters. Tsunade had had to help Noriko with all the changes that were happening with her body, in fact, the Hokage had pulled Noriko from her apartment for a while for all the shocks and sudden changes to occur (i.e. the start of Noriko's monthly cycle), but that only lasted for six months before everything had settled and Noriko had been forced, however unwillingly by Tsunade, to return to her apartment.

In those years there had been several other happenings in Konoha, among those being the revelation that both Kakashi and Iruka were seeing each other… romantically. The rookie nine had all changed and matured even 'Naruto,' but some in more ways than others. Time came for Noriko to get new clothes, some that wouldn't look so odd on either the henge male body or her normal female form. So Tsunade took it upon herself to buy her a new jacket and new clothes. The jacket was bright orange leather that had the Kanji for Kitsune stitched on it in black, the plants were the deepest black, and the shirts were a mixture of cut off shirts and spaghetti straps, also black. This was the most clothing that she had ever owned in all of her life, and it was all thanks to Tsunade, though it should be mentioned that the Hokage _conveniently _left out all forms of under garments out of her shopping spree.

Noriko was developing all the curves that most girls have and it was getting to a point where not even the GenJutsu or the numerous wraps binding her breasts could hide them, she would have to go shopping but that would be later today, Sasuke and Sakura had said that they wanted to talk with '_him_.'

So in the middle of a clearing deep in the wood sat Noriko, deep in thought. She had sat there for hours, alone with her thoughts and her self-proclaimed nee-chan, a.k.a. Kyuubi-chan. She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she almost didn't notice as her two team mates got closer and closer to her.

"Naruto…?" it was Sakura, they were very close…

'_What the hell…?_' Thought Sasuke. '_What's going on? He's so small, he almost looks like a girl…_' But his thoughts were interrupted by the body of his team mate filling out before her eyes, becoming more masculine and muscular before his very eyes.

"Whoops… Sorry about that guys…" said Naruto, scratching the back of his head with one hand and flashing them his trademark foxy grin. "I've been working on my Chakra control and I was seeing how long I could hold a henge all over my body while not thinking about it… I guess I was so deep-"

"Can it dobe." Cut in Sasuke, his voice was cold and hard. "And stop lying, tell us the truth, what are you hiding?"

Naruto looked at them in shock. "H-Hiding…? I-I'm not hiding anything?"

They looked at him, clearly not believing him at all.

Well at least Sasuke was, Sakura was looking at him with an odd expression her face.

She really didn't have any other lie to feed them, it was either flee, or tell them; and she sure as hell wasn't going to tell them that the boy they had know for the last six or seven years was really a girl. So Noriko went for the second option.

"Look guys, unless you have something important to discuss I'm outta here… Oba-cha wanted to see me about something." Said Naruto getting up and stretching, Sakura and Sasuke could both see the shimmer.

Sasuke activated his Sharingan, the flowing of the Chakra around his friend was there but he simply could not see what it did to his friend's body, the Sharingan just wasn't designed like that, he would need the Byakugan of either Neji or Hinata to find out what was going on.

The instant Noriko saw the Sharingan activate, she took off as fast as she could to the Hokage tower, she would need to ask Tsunade as to what to do, she was in big trouble that was for sure.

Sakura, on the other hand, had no idea as to why would Sasuke, her boyfriend, be acting like that? There were so many unanswered questions, some of which the two of them would have to go straight to the top to get their answers.

The two Chuunin were about to head for the Hokage tower when their former teacher and now Jounin boss appeared before them in the normal puff of smoke. "Yo." He greeted lazily.

The two Chuunin looked at him, they were annoyed beyond measure.

"The Hokage has a mission for the two of you, Naruto had been ordered to stay here, so the two of you are to some with me. Now go get packed, we leave in half an hour and we will be gone in the hidden Village of Ice, pack warmly, we'll be there for about three weeks." And the Jounin disappeared from view in the same puff of smoke, nit allowing them any questions.

THE HOKAGE'S OFFICE

Noriko sat in Tsunade's office, breathing very hard and completely unable to make a sound, her face was flushed and her fox ears drooped as if they were exhausted as well.

The Godaime Hokage leaned back in her chair, sipping her sake thoughtfully. "That was too close Noriko-chan…" she said finally. "That was way too close…"

Noriko looked up from her feet, there was an indescribable pain in her eyes. "I don't know what to do anymore, nee-chan…" she said in a small voice all the while pulling up her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms and her long fluffy tail around herself.

Tsunade's heart broke at the sight of the girl in front of her; the two of them had been through so much that, though they were not related by blood, the years and the experiences that the two of them had been through had bonded them together as sisters. The normally loud, rambunctious, cheerful 'future Hokage' was breaking in front of her eyes and it hurt…

A lot…

"Look…" sighed Tsunade, but before she could finish the door to her office few open and both Sakura and Sasuke walked through the door, they looked irate, Sasuke had his Sharingan activated.

In her current state of heightened emotions and running on pure adrenaline, Noriko's fear got the better of her and the extreme stress forced the Kyuubi's Chakra out. Using the new power that now flooded her veins, Noriko was under Tsunade's desk so fast, she seemed to just disappear, making no movements. Now under the desk, Noriko curled up into a little ball, shaking like a leaf.

Sasuke was all prepared to ignore the sight of another fox-child, but neither Tsunade nor Sakura were going to let this go… not without saying something and possibly killing one of them.

"God damnit you two!" bellowed Tsunade, thanking Kami that Noriko and her had come up with a plan, just in case something like this happened. "Do realize how long it took me to get her into that chair, just to get her to talk to me? Hours! God damnit! Hours! Ugh! What in Kami's name do you two _genin_ want!?!"

Sakura and Sasuke winced, the sight of the enraged Hokage would strike fear into anyone's heart, even Gaara's; but, before either of them could say anything in their defense, a new sound cut through the now uncomfortably silent office.

The girl, Noriko, was whimpering.

Normally Noriko could keep a cap on her emotions, but right now this was just too much for her to handle, the adrenaline induced hysteria had made it impossible to hold in her emotions.

Tsunade's expression softened almost instantly, the simple sound tore at her soul. "Look… you two…" she said in a soft voice, presumably to start to calm Noriko down. "I assume that you're here about your mission, right?" They nodded. "I thought so… I'm sorry, but one of you MUST go, I told the sound that I'd send our best…"

"But why not send a Jounin, or and ANBU, or why not-" started Sasuke, but Tsunade cut in.

"If you finish that sentence with Naruto's name, I paint my office with your blood. Naruto is on a forced vacation with Jiraiya in the village of the sand, you two know very well that ever since the war he hasn't been well…" Tsunade's voice was a deadly whisper.

"I'll go…" said Sakura, looking at Sasuke with admiration in his eyes.

"No…" said Tsunade, she placed a finger on her chin thoughtfully. "I have another assignment for you right now, Sakura… Sasuke you are to go on the mission with Kakashi, you are to go to find someone to accompany you from the ANBU squad to go with the two of you. Be ready to leave in an hour then meet Kakashi at the gate, you are dismissed, Sakura stay… we need to talk about your new assignment…"

Sasuke gave Sakura's hand a gentle squeeze as he left the office.

An uncomfortable silence fell in the office, only broken slightly by the whimpers coming from the fox-girl-ball that was Noriko. The Hokage gestured to a chair that was in front of her desk leaving one open for the girl under her desk, just in case she decided to come out.

"I need your help…" sighed Tsunade, setting down her cup of sake. "The girl you saw a few minuets ago is… well… her father took her and preformed grievous experiments on her… Her name Noriko, Uzumaki Noriko. She was found this mourning by Gai, right outside the village…"

Sakura nodded, she didn't understand why the Hokage was telling her this. "Okay…" she said. "But why are you telling me this…?"

"I need you and the other kunoichi, you know… the kunoichi from your class, Tenten and Temari, she's visiting with the Kazekage. Get her cleaned up and then get her the proper clothes for a girl… don't worry… I'm paying for every thing. In other words… I just want you to look after her… Please…"

Sakura pondered the request for a few moments, then nodded. "I'll do it, but I do want to know what…"

Tsunade looked at her with scrutiny, then sighed. "There's not much we know for sure, but there are a few things that I do know. First of all, you do know that Naruto and the Kyuubi parted ways after the final battle."

Ah yes… how could anyone forget that eventful day… The carnage was unbelievable, the image that would be burned into the memory of the entire world; Naruto and the Kyuubi- in all her glory- fighting side-by-side to kill off Orochimaru and the last bits of the Atsuki. The two of them had finished the battle quite quickly and afterward, the Kyuubi vanished, never to attack the Leaf again. No one wanted to remember that day, and everyone forgot that it was after that day that Naruto had become distant, and they couldn't figure it out; or at least it took them a while to do so.

"From the reports that we have of her father, he took the Kyuubi… he forced it into her…" Tsunade's voice trailed off as she looked down at her desk, silently, Tsunade was thanking Kami that Sakura was believing her.

Sakura couldn't believe what Tsunade was telling her, sure, there had been Kyuubi sightings all over the country, but they had stopped a few months ago, though no one knew why. To think that the Kyuubi had been captured and resealed… was unthinkable… In the past, she had had at least one or two conversations with the demon, Kyuubi was actually quite nice and a great conversationalist. Naruto was 'his' own person, 'he' wasn't the demon and she wasn't 'him.' Come to think of it, she quite liked the demon and had pushed for her to become the guardian of the village, but the council wouldn't hear of it, no matter how many people spoke out for her character, though many think that they refused just because Naruto put in a good word for her.

Slowly, Sakura's thoughts trailed over to the fox-girl, now curled up under the Hokage's desk. She was still out of sight… Sakura reflected on her friend, Naruto's life again; the loneliness, rejection, and hatred that 'he' had faced, Naruto had once told her that if anyone had ever faced what he had, he do anything in his power to save him or her from that hell… She was damned if she was going to let another go through that and become another Naruto…

It took the combined efforts of Sakura and Tsunade to coax the sacred girl out from under the giant desk. Once out and standing in front of the two of them Sakura looked her over for any injuries. She noted that the Kyuubi must be doing her stuff…

There was something very familiar about those clothes.

Sakura looked Noriko over as she took off Naruto's prized leather jacket, it was impossible for anyone not know that it was his jacket, the Hokage had ordered it specially for him and it was one of a kind. She was a little under middle height (FYI the Naruto disguise made 'him' about 6'3"). She had had spiky unruly blonde hair that hung a little below her shoulders. Her eyes were a beautiful sky blue with slits for pupils, Sakura guessed that that was Kyuubi's doing. On her cheeks were three dark, yet dainty whisker marks that looks some what like Naruto's. She was most definitely female, there were all the right curves in all the right places, yet there was the hint of muscle under all the feminine curves, most of the kunoichi would kill for a figure like that.

Then it clicked. They were Naruto's.

"Noriko-chan… Where did you get those clothes...?" asked Sakura looking over at Tsunade then to Noriko and flicking back and forth between the two of them.

Before Noriko could answer, Tsunade answered for her.

"Naruto gave them to her…" the Hokage said. "Her other clothes… well… they weren't worth using for rags, so Naruto took it upon himself to give her the clothes off his back- though the jacket was just a loan- he went home in just his boxers, I'm pretty sure I heard some whistles."

Sakura and Noriko blushed, though Sakura's was noticeably deeper than Noriko's. '_hmm… Noriko's a good actor. I wonder what else she's been hiding from us…?_' thought Tsunade. "Here." She handed Sakura a scroll that she had written just for the occasion, it was basically an order that anything that they bought would be charged the Hokage and would be paid by her.

Sakura took the scroll, tucked it into the pouch at her waist, grabbed Noriko's hand and the two of them left without even saying good bye.

ON THE STREETS OF KONOHA

The people of Konoha shot Noriko furtive looks, but showed neither her nor Sakura and animosity. In her mind, Noriko wondered what her friends would think f her true self as a lady, as Naruto, she wore a mask that hid all of her emotions, now as a girl, as Noriko, she could be her true self.

Before she knew it, the two of them were at the flower shop that Ino's family ran and lived in. Sakura practically had to carry Noriko into the shop. As the two of them entered the shop, a little bell rang from above their heads, altering Ino, who was working the counter at the time, to their presence.

"Hey there Fore-head chick!" Ino shouted to her friend, they had come with new insults for each other. "Who's your friend?" But as Noriko came out from behind Sakura, Ino registered that she wasn't… normal… Her reaction wasn't expected…

Upon registering that Noriko had two fox ears sticking out of her head and a very fluffy fox tail she shrieked (you men know… the kind that only a very excited girl can make…) and tackled Noriko who was too startled to move out of the way.

"She's SOOOOOOOOOOOOO CUTE!!!" shrieked Ino tackling the fox-girl in a hug that knocked the two of them off of their feet. Noriko tried in vain to get away from the suffocating hug that she was receiving from the over excited teen. Eventually Ino pulled herself up off of the ground and held the girl at arm's length, looking her up and down with a designer's eye, being a flower arranger and a very fashion tuned teen, Ino was able to figure out what anyone would look good in. "Hiya! I'm Yamanaka Ino, just Ino please!" There were other things said, but to Noriko's highly sensitive fox-ears it was just noise.

"H-Hi… ano… I'm Noriko…" replied Noriko, still a little shocked.

Ino frowned a little bit and glanced at Sakura, but didn't say anything. "You new in town?"

"Yes… come on Ino-pig. Tsunade-sama wants us to get her cleaned up and buy her some new clothes with the other kunoichi and Temari." Sakura answered for Noriko. Ino nodded and then yelled.

"Mom! I'm going out with Sakura to help with something for Hokage-sama!" and without waiting for an answer from her they three of them left.

Finding Tenten and Temari wasn't hard; they were at the training grounds. Their reactions were about the same as Ino's and they also frowned at Noriko would answer shyly and all the times she would be looking at her feet and would miss their looks.

Everyone knew where Hinata would be; at the Hyuuga main complex in Konoha. Sakura was the only one of the girls who wished to retrieve Hinata, the others wanted to go ahead shopping for Noriko, but Sakura wouldn't have it. The door was answered by a undistinguishable servant.

"Yes…?" asked the servant.

"We want to see Hyuuga Hinata…" said Sakura, taking charge. "It's for a mission for the Hokage."

"Just a moment." Replied the servant.

"Is it just me or are all them the same…?" asked Ino. They had kinda forgotten about Noriko. "Every time I've been here, all of the servants look the same and they all sound alike."

"I've always thought so." said Hinata, coming out of the complex. "But they're a lot nicer once you're on the inside."

There was a chorus of hellos and "how are you"s from everyone but Noriko, she on the other hand, looked at her feet. Hinata looked at the new girl with curiosity.

"Hi there…"she said trying to get the girls attention. Noriko looked up into her white, pupil-less eyes. "I'm Hyuuga Hinata."  
"Hi… I'm… ano… Noriko…" Noriko stammered, finding her feet very interesting and twiddling her index fingers.

Hinata frowned as well, and looked at the others, they all nodded as if they were confirming something, though no one said anything.

"Come on girls…" said Sakura, trying to break the mood. "We've got shopping to do!"

The other kunoichi, yelled in an affirmative. Both, Temari and Ino took Noriko's hand and led her off into the shopping district of Konoha.

SHOPPING

"Where do we go first?" asked Hinata, looking around at all the shops. There were so many different kinds, all of them devoted to the wonderful world of women's clothing.

The group of kunoichi, all stopped in the middle of the road. They all knew the one question that they had to ask, but no one wanted to ask it.

Finally, Sakura took the initiative and asked the question. "Noriko-chan… do you have any… uh… under wear?"

Noriko wouldn't meet their eyes, but mumbled something that only Sakura could hear. Sakura looked up, but didn't repeat anything that the girl had said. "Tenten and Temari, you two go find some sleep wear, go with "smalls" and Hinata and Ino will come with me. We'll meet back here in two hours to find day wear." Then whispering to the two she was sending off, "Find something with foxes…"

Tenten and Temari mock saluted and hurried off while Sakura took Noriko's hand and gently led her into a store, with blacked out windows (for the perverts) that was devoted entirely to women's undergarments.

Once inside the store, Sakura and Ino led Noriko to the back of the practically empty store to one of the changing booths. One of the attendants tried to stop them, but after she had read the scroll that Sakura had thrown at her, the attendant shut up.

"Noriko-chan..." started Ino, "Do you know your sizes?"

"Ano…" stuttered Noriko. "I-I n-n-never had a mom. S-so I-I don't-t kn-now… I n-never had 'nybody t-tell m-me anything…"

"Well then…" sighed Sakura, this was going to be harder than she thought; not that she minded, but she wanted to have several hours to talk with Noriko. She led the other girl over to one of the stalls that served as a dressing room and led her inside. "Get undressed and we'll figure everything out."

"But-"

"I'm a medic and a girl so don't think of this as perverted or anything like that, okay?"

"O-Okay…" Noriko started to full off the black shirt that was 'Naruto's' and handed it to Sakura, who folded it neatly. Underneath the shirt was a expanse of lightly tanned skin that was only broken by some graying bandages that tightly bound her breasts.

Sakura was shocked at the sight, but didn't say anything, though there were several thought blazing through her head…

Then, Noriko stopped undressing herself; she just stood their looking at her feet, embarrassed as hell.

"What's that matter?" asked Sakura. "Why'd you stop?"

"I… ano…" Noriko said but the last part was so quiet that Sakura couldn't hear it.

"Sorry… but I didn't catch that last part there."

"I… d-don't have anything e-else…"

"Oh… But didn't you have something under your clothes when you came…"

"…"

"INO!"

At the girl's shout, the blonde poked her head into the dressing room through the curtain that served as a door. "You rang?" she said.

"Yes… find me some bikini briefs, you know what I'm looking for, something on the smaller end of the scale. Then find Hinata, tell her to find me some plain white bras, somewhere in the mid b-cup."

Ino, foregoing all hints of sarcasm, pulled her head out of the stall and they could hear the two of the girls' feet walking about.

The three of them had spent an hour in the store, finding several things for Noriko, when they left, Noriko looking much more comfortable in the black clothes that belonged to 'Naruto' having recently donned the undergarments that they had purchased and everything was in its proper place. They found the other two sitting at an outdoor café, drinking tea, with several bags of clothing next to them. As the three of them approached the café, Noriko noticed an odd gleam in their eye, and her 'Naruto side' was screaming in fear.

"You finished…?" asked Tamari, setting down her now empty cup of tea.

"Yup…" said Sakura, draping and arm around Noriko's shoulders, indicating that they should take a look at her.

Okay, the other kunoichi were going to have to keep an eye on her, she was gorgeous. The undergarments that they had bought only accentuated her figure and made her look sexy, rather than adorable, although she was still adorable, but now looked more like a vixen.

"Ladies… I think that we're going to have our hands full with this little vixen…" said Ino, suggestively.

"Ano…" Noriko blushed a deep, deep red.

"Well she can't have my Choji-kun!" said Tenten, the two of them had been going out for little over an year.

"… or my Kiba-kun." Said Hinata.

"… or my Lee-kun." said Ino, with fire in her eyes.

"…. If you so much as touch my Sasuke-kun…" Sakura threatened.

If she could have, she would've had the earth swallow her, but she wasn't allowed to show that she knew any jutsu's that only 'Naruto' knew. So, she compromised by taking a step back. "Ano…"

It took them a few minutes, but they eventually clamed down.

"Okay…" said Ino. "Now that we've installed a healthy fear of Kami in our Noriko-chan, we can finally get to the good stuff."

"What good stuff?" asked Noriko, her 'Naruto' side getting the better of her.

The other kunoichi stared at her, she had never not stuttered before to them.

Then, as if something had been confirmed in their minds an evil grin crossed their faces, Ino, rubbing her hands together, said. "Why… the main part of the shopping… getting you some day clothes."

By the time they were done, Noriko had a complete new wardrobe, was completely wiped out, even more dirty and sweaty, and had no idea where she was going to stay for the time being.

But then, as if the Hokage was reading her mind, and ANBU appeared in front of them holding a scroll.

"Sakura-san…" said the man with a falcon mask.

She took the scroll and the man disappeared. Sakura opened the scroll and read it quickly, she looked at Noriko directly.

"It says that you're supposed to stay with one of us, the Hokage hasn't had time to set up your apartment."

"O-okay…" Noriko stuttered.

"The lot of you can stay at the complex." Said Hinata, looking pleased with herself. "There are plenty of large rooms for us to all stay together, and then we have the hot springs and open air bath house."

"It's settled, we're going to the Hyuugas…" said Temari. "I haven't had a good soak in a hot spring in what seems like years."

The group of them walked over to the complex as it was nearing the time of that day when a man (or woman) gives his first yawn and looks up at the clock and considers going to bed early after a long hard day of being a Ninja. The huge gates to the complex opened as Hinata knocked and one of the servants ushered them inside of the complex.

Almost instantly they were accosted by Hiashi, who looked a little tired and drunk at the same time. That was a good thing, because a sober Hyuuga can be a stubborn jackass when it comes to anything that another needs to convince them of. About three minuets after Hinata had spoken to Hiashi, Noriko found herself being stripped by a group of girls, intent on getting her "cleaned up," as per the instructions on the scroll.

Soon Noriko found herself sitting in front of a faucet with a nude Sakura and Ino scrubbing her hair and back. It was surprising to all of the other girls to find out that Noriko's hair was naturally unruly and almost blindingly golden blonde. To them, Noriko had amazing skin, it was lightly tanned and soft to the touch, there was no hair at all on her body, save on her head.

"Did you shave yourself…?" asked Ino, curiously.

"Shave…?" asked Noriko, this time she wasn't pretending. "Shave what? I'm not a man. So why would I need to shave?"

The other girls stared at her, dumbfounded.

"You mean that you've never had to shave your legs or otherwise…?" asked Temari, with wide eyes.

"…yes" replied Noriko, wondering what she had done wrong.

There was an uncomfortable silence as the other girls looked at each other; Sakura on the other hand ignored them as she dumped water over Noriko, rinsing the shampoo out of the other girl's hair.

"All done!" said Sakura standing up from her kneeling position behind Noriko.

Noriko stood up and moved out of the way so she could return the favor for Sakura.

Sakura shook her head and said, "Nope… you go over there and get into the hot spring and wait for the rest of us, then we're all going to get to know you better and you can ask us questions."

"O-okay…" said Noriko, walking out to the spring and lowered herself into the hot water until only her nose and the top of her head was above the water, she closed her eyes and sighed, even her ears relaxed and leaned back against her head.

WITH THE KUNOICHI

The other girls looked at each other with a newfound knowledge in their eyes.

"Okay…" started Tenten. "Who of you actually believes the story that the Hokage fed us?"

No one said anything.

"I always knew that there was something going on, but I never could put my finger on it." Sighed Temari, sounding just like Shikamaru.

"I know, but there has to be a good reason for all the mystery… but what?" said Sakura, rinsing out her hair.

"I think a better question would be is why?" said Hinata stepping away from one of the other faucets in the bath house. They were all cleaned and were now headed to the hot spring that took up most of the bath house.

They looked in at Noriko, she was still completely under water except for the top of her head and her fox ears.

Slowly, a feral grin came over Ino's face and she pulled the others back into the part with all the faucets. "I think I know a way to get her to confess…"

The lot of them gathered around her as Ino explained her devious plan.

WITH NORIKO

She was thinking hard, these girls had shown him more compassion than the combined amount in all of his life. No one else had been this nice to him, although there had been time when Kyuubi-nichan had been kind and then there was months with Tsunade-nichan but that really wasn't like this…

The kunoichi had shown her things that no one else had ever had, even when she had dropped the henge to go shopping, the shop keepers had either thrown her out of the shop or had refused to help her when asked. Sakura, Ino, and Hinata were all so kind, although she knew that both Hinata and Neji could see through the henge the both of them had treated her like she was still a boy; though Neji had confronted her about the henge after the Chuunin exam, and was the only one who had wormed the whole story out of her. Both, Ino and Sakura were known to be hotheaded in a lot of things and Noriko knew this first hand, but the two girls that he had met today were vastly different from the two he knew. Right now she hoped that Neji had kept the secret and told no one…

She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't hear the other girls slip into the water and gather themselves around her in a small circle.

"Naruto-kun…" cooed a voice.

Noriko's head shot up in the familiar fox grin and she had a hand behind her neck, the action had become a reflex whenever some had said her male form's name.

The instant her eyes opened she knew she was caught…

The other girls looked on with smug looks, although some of them were now growing angry, after all, for all they knew, Noriko was just the name of the henge that 'Naruto' was using.

"Why…?" asked Sakura, shaking her head sadly. "Why would you do something like this Naruto? Are you a closet pervert and somehow got Hokage-sensei to give you a mission like this?"

Noriko shook her head, her eyes were wide and she pulled her legs up to her chest, curling into a little ball.

They all looked on, waiting for an answer from the girl.

"Why…?" asked Ino, and it was echoed by the other kunoichi. "Naruto… why?"

There was a very uncomfortable silence and Noriko stared at them with wide eyes, then a flash of realization flashed across Hinata's eyes.

"You aren't a guy are you…?" asked Hinata.

Noriko shook her head, burying her head into her knees.

"Then why would you hide like this…?" asked Sakura, she was looking at her teammate like she had never seen her before.

"Don't you see…?" asked Temari, unbelieving. Even she knew of the Kyuubi and how the others in the village hated him… her for being the vessel.

They looked at Temari blankly.

"You don't mean…" gasped Hinata, she was always the more perceptive one of the group.

"I do…"

Hinata, looked over to the girl, and kindly said. "I understand Noriko-chan."

"But we don't…" said Tenten; Sakura and Ino nodded right behind her.

"If it was common knowledge that I was a girl…" said Noriko, but she couldn't get the rest of it out.

"… you'd be raped." Finished Temari, looking at Noriko with sympathy.

The other girls shuddered at the very thought of that and Noriko burst into tears.

Any animosity that they had held towards the girl had vanished from them as Sakura pulled the sobbing Noriko onto her shoulder and embraced her. They all looked at each other, there was a silent pact between the five of them to make Noriko's transition from male to female comfortable and easier than it would normally be.

They waited for a few moments as they waited for Noriko to calm down, it wasn't all that long, but eventually she did; though it took a far shorter time than it should have. The mask had slid into place, and they knew it; after all, we all know that women are more perceptive than men.

"Noriko-chan…" sighed Ino, shaking her head and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Stop hiding from us… There's no reason to pretend around us. We're here for you."

"I-I don't know h-how…" whispered Noriko. "I've never been able to j-just be me… always been alone…"

"Well you're not alone anymore, you've got five girlfriends here for you and we'll always be here for you." Said Temari. "and if I know my brother, he'll stand beside you as well, though I wouldn't count on him being nice t you…"

Noriko looked at them with watery eyes and a small, real smile. "Thank you… so much…"

The others smiled at her kindly.

"Hey… sorry to break the mood and everything, but can we change the subject?" asked Tenten. "This is a little depressing."

They all looked at her incredulously…

Then a sound broke through the silence…

A sound that was foreign to them all…

It was a small giggle, then a full blown laugh.

It was coming from Noriko, she was laughing at the look on Hinata's face- the poor girl had just realized that her crush was a girl- she was laughing so hard that she slid off the underwater bench she was sitting on and completely submerged under the water. When she emerged from the water all the other kunoichi were laughing as well, even the shocked Hinata.

After the laughter had died down they were all smiling, and Noriko was reclining on a rock, she looked more relaxed than she ever had been, though her ears twitched every now and then.

"So… now what…?" asked Noriko, she was new to this kind of thing, both being a member of the fairer sex and having friends with whom she didn't have to hide.

"Well…" started Tenten. "Normally we'd gossip here for about an hour."

"Then we'd go back to the room that I had one of the servant prepare for us" said Hinata, still a little flushed.

"…and stay up late and gossip some more…" said Sakura, "After all, there's much that we have to find out about _**you**_."

"Soo…" started Ino, she was the big gossip among them. "You do like boys right? After spending the most of your life as one you know them pretty well, then there was that huge crush that you had on Sakura here."

Noriko looked at Ino as if she had grown an extra head. "It completely depends on the boy in question here Ino-san. As for Sakura-chan, I'm sorry, but that was oji-san's idea."

"Oji-san?" it was Sakura.

"Sandiame." Was the simple reply. "I mean, there's nothing wrong with most of the Shinobi here in Konoha, but most of them are either stuck up bastards or just plain stupid…" she trailed off, her eyes going distant.

"Well I'm sure that no one cares who you like as long as you don't take… Noriko-chan? No-Riko-chan?" Ino was waving a hand in front of the girl's face. "I think we lost her girls."

Sakura heaved a sigh and pushed the fox girl off o the bench she was sitting on… again. She came back up sputtering and spitting water.

It was the most fun any of them had had in a long time; they had all loved 'Naruto' as a brother, sometimes as a little brother, and had loved spending time with the hyperactive Ninja. 'Naruto' had always been a bundle of fun and Noriko was proving to be just that, though she had a darker side to her than most other girls.

After about a hour they all got out of the spring and they all dressed in pajamas. Noriko, having been recently introduced to the female side of underwear was having a hard time putting on her bra before Sakura could stop her. She had pulled a fresh pair of panties and the new pair of sleep pants; they were a light pink color with little foxes eating bowls of ramen all over them.

"Don't put one of them on before you go to bed…" said Sakura taking the offending article of clothing out of her hands and placing it back in the bag with her other clothes, then pulled a plain white t-shit and pulled it over the girl's head, the shirt contoured to her every curve and stopped about an inch above the tops of her pants. After she was dressed as well, Sakura took Noriko's hand and led her out into the hall, the other kunoichi were waiting for them, they were dressed similarly to Noriko but had differing tops and patterns on the bottoms, or in Ino's and Temari's case their shorts.

As a group, they all went into a large room that had several futons laid down all over the floor, a table with drinks and several things to snack on through the night, evidently the Hyuuga servants knew how to do a sleep over right. The group of them all flopped down onto the numerous futons and cushions, Noriko on the other hand, was looking about.

"What'cha-" started Ino, biting the end off of a stick of poky.

"What time is it?" said Noriko, cutting through the other girls conversation.

"Its about… ten, why?" said a confused Tenten.

"Oh… Hinata do you have a radio?"

"Uh… sure, just a second…" said Hinata, a little confused, but asked one of the servants to bring a radio for them. The radio was there in under three minuets.

Noriko wasted no time in turning the radio on and tuning it to a particular station that was just finishing a heavy metal song.

"_It's ten 'o clock folks_" said the announcer. "A_nd it's story time for my little kunoichi, Noriko-chan here you go…" _

The music started and the kunoichi looked at Noriko with even more questions, but she was too absorbed in song, her tail was tapping in time with the music.

"_Once upon a time at the foot of a great mountain, _

_There was a town where the people known as Happyfolk lived…"_

What the hell…? This wasn't even a story, it was a mockery of music and story telling set to a simple tune, what was going on? No one dared to make a sound as the song continued to play, Noriko sitting in front of the radio watching it like she would a T.V.

The song was over, and in the opinions of the other kunoichi it had not ended too soon.

"_Good night my little Noriko-chan, now for the rest of you people, here's_-" the announcer tried to say, but was cut off as Noriko turned off the radio, and looked at the rest of them. They were staring at her with wide eyes and open mouths.

"What?" she asked looking a bit worried that they might be mad.

"What the hell was that?" asked Ino, being the first one to pick her jaw up off of the floor.

"What to you mean?"

"What was with that… song thing? How does the announcer know you? The real you?" Ino had worked herself into a rant.

"It's Iruka-sensei. Ano… When I was little, oji-san ordered someone to come over every night to read me a story. There were several people who came, many just came to beat me… it took forever to get back to oji-san, but when it did, there was hell to pay. He realized, that no matter what he did, there would always be those people who would hate me no matter what. So he set up a deal with the local radio station to play a story song for me every night, though they wouldn't know who it was for. Right now Iruka-sensei is the announcer, being on an undercover mission for the Hokage, so he does it for me now."

"Wow…" said Tenten. "That's really cool…"

"Yeah…" sighed Hinata, the others said similar things to this.

Noriko looked at them all like they were crazy. "Ano… excuse me if I'm wrong… but isn't it better if you had someone to come in at night read you something, tuck you in, and then tell you that they love you?"

The kunoichi flinched back as though they had been slapped.

"I didn't think of it like that…" said Sakura, looking very displeased with herself.

"Look, don't worry about it… hey… someone change the subject, I don't want to talk about my past anymore…" said Noriko waving her hand as though all the pain in her life had been nothing.

"Fine…" said Ino a mischievous glint coming into her eyes. "So… who gave it to you…?"

Noriko immediately grabbed her right hand and hid her knuckles in her other hand, clearly she was hiding something. "Ano… I-I'm not hiding anything…"

"Right…" said Hinata sarcastically, who knew she had it in her? "and I'm the daughter of Kakashi. Tell us… who gave it to you?"

"Gave what?" asked Sakura, she had been sitting on the side of Noriko and could not see her hands.

"If you had been paying any attention at all you would have seen the ring on her right middle finger." Said Temari, with Tenten nodding next to her, Temari was playing with Tenten's hair. "Even we could see it from all the way over here."

"Come on…" cooed Tenten handing Temari a comb. "Show us the ring…"

Noriko, slowly pulled her hand out of her other hand and showed the other girls the ring that was on her hand. It was a thick, solid band made of white gold, there were no markings on it of any kind, not even the normal scratches that would've appeared on any other ring.

Ino whistled in appreciation of the fine ring, then asked. "Who gave it to you?"

But before Noriko could answer, the door to the room that they were "sleeping" in opened, revealing a young man with the white eyes of the Hyuuga and long-ish black hair.

"Neji-kun…" squeaked Noriko.

Author Notes:

Well I hope that we've sparked your interest.

This was co-authored with a friend of mine, she goes by Kitsune no Noriko, and nothing else. This is also a sort of gift to her and hopefully she hasn't been lying to me about the things that I don't know about, namely those things that pertain to the female body and other things of that nature…

Cheers

Aengus and Kitsune no Noriko.


	2. Return of the Yellow Flash

Sadly I do not own Naruto. Oh well… but I can still play around with the plot.

This is very much an AU story. If you don't like it, I really don't care. This came into being from a request from a friend, co-author, and now girlfriend; not to mention an AP English assignment.

With in this chapter there is a small song that Noriko sings, it was written by:

-PsychicLunar-

Hidden in Plain Sight, Act II: The Return of the Yellow Flash.

_But before Noriko could answer, the door to the room that they were "sleeping" in opened, revealing a young man with the white eyes of the Hyuuga and long-ish black hair. _

"_Neji-kun…" squeaked Noriko._

Neji hid a small smile as he walked into the room; he had changed a lot since he had broken up with Tenten. It was soon after that torrid relationship that he cut his normally long hair to a point where he actually looked like a member of the male sex. Also, during the war with the Hidden Sound, the main family had been forced to remove his curse seal. So now instead of commonly being mistaken for an angsty kunoichi, he was widely recognized as a _very_ sexy man, wanted by the women of the village almost as much as Sasuke was.

The other kunoichi in the room did their best to try and ignore the male that had just entered the room, the Hyuuga household was very different than other houses in the villages, they had no privacy at all, so it wasn't all that odd for a male to come walking into the room full of females at odd times.

Neji walked over to Hinata, got down on one knee and bowed. "Hinata-sama, I have been assigned to guard your room tonight, if there is anything that you need please inform me and I shall see to it."

Hinata sent him a small smile and replied, "Thank you Neji-nisan."

"It is always a pleasure." Replied the now standing young man. "By your leave…?"

Hinata waved her hand at him, a joking dismissal.

The next thing that Neji did would shake their very image of him as a coldhearted bastard that they had come to know over the years.

Neji had been on the way out when he stopped in front of Noriko and was looking down at her with a small smile on his face, she just grinned back up at him, her foxtail twitching slightly.

"You listen to your story?" he asked.

Noriko nodded vigorously her grin cracking her lips and showing off her elongated canines.

"Normally I would attempt to make you go to bed…" he trailed off, then smirked; looking around the room. "But seeing as you're now a kunoichi and not that brainless idiot that you pretended to be, I leave you to your own devices."

Noriko's smile had grown so large that her eyes were now squeezed shut.

"Just try to get some sleep, Tsunade-hime has informed me that you are to become a member of the Konoha Shinobi ranks and are going to be tested on your skills tomorrow." Neji knelt down so that he was face to face with Noriko, his eyes locked onto hers. "You show them how good you can be, okay?"

Noriko nodded again and launched herself at him, knocking him over in a huge bear hug.

The other kunoichi were staring at them their mouths hanging open, Neji had never let anyone hug him… ever.

Neji was just as surprised as the others were, there he was with a very nicely shaped female pressing herself to his front, on the floor, rubbing against him in some very interesting ways, in front of several other females; it was causing him some blood flow issues.

Awkwardly he hugged her back and after a few more moments Noriko removed herself from him, whispering a small. "Thank you Neji-kun…"

Neji smiled once more saying, "I told you you'd be first." Quickly kissed her forehead, and left even quicker than one would have thought possible.

The kunoichi in the room watched Neji leave with a sense of disbelief flooding their minds, who was that man and what had he done with Hyuuga Neji, the Ice King?

"What in the of the seven levels of HELL was that!?!" Ino all but shouted.

"That…" said Noriko a small smile still on her face, not to mention a huge blush. "That, dear ladies, was a very good secret keeper." She looked thoughtful for a moment, "That and sexiest man in all of Konoha."

Hinata could not hold back her blush, as she turned a shade of red that easily outclassed that red of Noriko's ears and tail.

Seconds passed…

Temari, Ino, and Sakura couldn't hold back any longer…

They burst out laughing, laughing harder than when they had found out that Sasuke's brother was as straight as a three-yen coin and was _VERY_ interested in his brother. Louder than when they had heard the details of what Sasuke had done to Itachi for even thinking such things. Somehow Sasuke had reflected the advanced form of Itachi's Sharingan and in doing that convinced his brother that his partner was him (Sasuke) and was, in fact, very inviting…

No one had heard of either of them since.

It took them a few minutes to calm down but they did, finally.

"Now that that's over with…" said Ino with a odd gleam in her eyes. "Let's get this party started!"

The others cheered loudly and attacked the random amounts of food that the Hyuuga servants had set out for them. If anything these girls could eat.

And eat.

A-and eat.

And eat some more…

Finally they left the table, the food on top of it in ruins, Noriko had sat there and stared at them, dumbfounded. Her manners may not, nor have been the best, but when compared to these girls… she was at least civilized.

Temari rolled onto her back with a soft sigh.

"Man…" she sighed again, "That was good."

"Don't go to sleep now Tem-chan!" shouted Tenten

"There's way to much to do!" continued Ino, "I mean there's so much that we don't know about No-chan here!"

"Like, who else knows that you're really a girl, No-chan?" asked Sakura.

Noriko, put a finger on her chin, looking so cute while thinking that Hinata and Ino and to restrain Temari from glomping the girl. "Well… Kakashi-hentai knows, so does Shizune-nichan, and think Ero-sennin figured it out, but I'm sure no one else."

"oh…" was the slightly stunned reply.

"Not to mention that as the kunoichi of the village and around her age, we have a duty to try and set her up with the most eligible bachelor in… oh… wait…" Sakura trailed off mid rant.

"Nani?" asked Noriko, cocking her head to one side.

MOST of the kunoichi had the good graces to blush, all but Temari.

"Well… heh heh… You see…" Ino stuttered. "We… uh… kinda… welabeledyouthemosteligiblebachelorinallofKonoha." She said all of this very fast, and thus made it very hard for Noriko to understand.

"Oh…" the fox-girl said. "I was wondering why I had so many girls trying to get into my house."

Cue massive, group, sweat drop.

"And besides…" said Hinata effectively steering the conversation away from the uncomfortable topic of dating. "There's the chocolate to think of."

All of the kunoichi, minus Noriko, whipped their heads around so fast if one would've blinked, then one would've missed it.

"You… mean…?" Sakura managed out of her mouth that was currently full of drool.

"Yup…" said Hinata in a mysterious voice. "The Hyuuga Special Dark Chocolate."

The other's in the room, still minus Noriko sighed dreamily, or in Sakura's chase, drooled.

It is a little known fact to most of the inhabitants of Konoha that the oldest clans were stared out by people forming guilds that specialized in making or doing something unique. Look at Kiba's family, they are still doing it, they were, and are, dog breeders. In this case, the Hyuuga's were a world-renowned guild of the best chocolate makers ever to grace the planet, royalty from all of the old countries would send off for their chocolate.

While the others were lost in their dreams, Noriko just looked around the room with her head cocked to one side, completely confused.

"What's the matter No-Chan?" asked Temari. Of all of the kunoichi in the room, Temari had taken to "Naruto" much faster and much easier than the others had; even Sakura hadn't become friends with Naruto this fast. The Sand kunoichi had always thought of Naruto as her own, personal, non-psycho, little brother, and now with Noriko, the feeling was still the same, only now it was a little sister.

"Oh…" the fox-girl gasped. "It's nothing…" She looked down and began to fiddle with the fur of her foxtail. This action caught the attention of all of the other kunoichi in the room, effectively snapping them out of their daydreams.

When "Naruto" had been either a) nervous or b) lying to them, her would smile and scratch the back of his head, or after his transformation into a kitsune, play with the fur on his tail.

Now everyone's attention was focused in on Noriko.

"It's alright…" cooed Ino, sitting down close to Noriko and placing an arm around her shoulders.

"It's nothing really…" whispered Noriko, a lightly blush covering her whiskered cheeks. She looked up and with the comforting looks and small words from the others. "I was just wondering… what's chocolate?"

There was silence at the end of this question.

Complete and utter silence.

No one besides Noriko moved or breathed.

Hell, even the crickets stopped their chirping.

"You mean to tell us…" said Hinata, a righteous anger burning in her heart. "That you've never had chocolate before?"

Seeing the looks and sensing the anger in their faces, Noriko ducked her head and nodded very slightly, afraid that they wouldn't want to be friends with her any more. Of all the things in the world, Noriko was afraid of losing her friends the most, because of her abusive childhood that there would always be the deep seeded fear that, one day, they would all denounce her and she would end up all alone again.

"But what about the chocolate bars that we would get at the end of the year from Iruk-senei?" asked Sakura, still in shock.

Noriko looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Oh those…" she said, and then ducked her head in shame, again. "I either had to sell them for money so I could get my weekly meal or some villager who said 'I wasn't good enough for such things' took them. It's really not that big 'a deal, I'm used to it."

They had caught the slip on Noriko's part about the "weekly meal," but let it slide… This time…

If anything the anger that had been burning in Hinata's chest had now spread to the others in the room and even to Neji, who was sitting outside the door, just in case something or someone entered the room that wasn't supposed to be there.

Sakura was the first one to regain her ability to speak after this shock. Her words, in regards to the villagers were strangely apt; they were base, extreme, and called into doubt the villagers' parentage, sexual preferences, personal appearance and hobbies, and implied certain predilections that are not normally mentioned in polite society, or within the hearing range of young children.

Throughout her rant the other kunoichi in the large room, minus Noriko, voiced their agreements and nodded.

Noriko, on the other hand, hadn't heard a word of the rant and she… well… she pulled her knees up to her chest and curled into a ball. She was so worried that they'd turn her out and refuse to be her friend.

"Maybe I should just leave…" Noriko whispered in a very pre-Naruto-enhanced-Hinata-like voice; Noriko had actually gotten up and made it half way to the door before she was actually tackled off of her feet by Hinata.

"Look Noriko-chan, I am only going to say this once. Whatever those bastards who call themselves villagers did to you WAS. NOT. YOUR. FAULT. Got it? Now, understand that there is nothing that could make us want to stop being your friend." Hinata would've continued, but the others had decided that it was their turn to voice their affirmations to Hinata's words.

"Yeah." Said Tenten with a fist in the air.

"You tell her sister." Said Ino, she wasn't doing anything, just sitting and watching the two of them.

"Right on." Said Sakura, who was trying to braid Temari's short blond hair.

"Listen to the girl, No-chan." Said Temari, careful not to move her head.

Noriko just stared at the blue-hair Hyuuga in wonder.

"Now where is that chocolate?" asked Hinata, taking charge of the situation in a very un-Hinata like way. But right as she finished her question, the door to the room opened and four chefs walked in, arms laden with trays. Three of the four carried various fruits, sweets, pretzels, cakes, and the like, plus other instruments to eat with. The fourth held what looked like a water fountain; only the water in this fountain was the rich dark brown chocolate. The liquid sweet flowed down three piers before pooling at the bottom. The smell alone would have made even the most hardened of Shinobi drool.

Noriko stared, this was becoming quite common, in wonder, and her mouth was hanging slightly open.

A mischievous glint came into Tenten's eyes as she picked up a long spoon. The kunoichi dipped it into the liquid heaven and placed it into Noriko's already open mouth.

The look on Noriko's face the instant her brain registered the taste could only be describe as rapturous, hell, she wouldn't eve let the spoon be removed from her mouth, no matter how hard Tenten tried to pull it out.

"You know… I think she likes it…" whispered Sakura to Tenten, with a slight giggle.

"I'll say…" replied the kunoichi biting into a plump strawberry, a bit of the juice dribbling down her chin. "She's still sucking on that spoon."

Indeed, Noriko was still sucking on that spoon, trying to ensure that there was no more of the chocolaty goodness on the silver spoon.

Ino got an evil glint in her eye, and she crept from her seat behind Noriko to right behind the fox-girl. "EARTH TO NORIKO-CHAN!!!" the blond girl bellowed.

Noriko was so startled and surprised that she jumped so high and fast that she literally jumped out of her pants and was now hanging from the ceiling rafters in just her shirt and her panties

"Don't do that!" the fox-girl shrieked down at them.

"High strung isn't she?" Tenten said to Hinata as the Heiress took a bite out of a marshmallow dripping with chocolate.

"You try switching sexes after spending sixteen or so years of people believing that you're a boy, then see how high strung YOU are." Grumbled Noriko as she shimmed down one of the support beams. "Gimmie my pants damnit."

Temari tossed the pants to the fox-girl commenting dryly "Now that's not proper language for a lady."

Noriko flew her the bird and plopped down next to the pretzels, which hadn't been touched, and began to combine the liquid goodness with the salty snack.

There was an awkward silence as the others watched her.

"No-chan…" said Sakura, breaking the silence hesitantly.

"Hmm…?" sighed Noriko, a pretzel stick hanging out of her mouth like a salty cigar.

"What's with you and Neji-san?"

Noriko paused, crunching the pretzel with her front teeth. No one said anything as the fox-girl consumed the salty treat; everyone was waiting for her answer.

Noriko pulled the last bit of the stick into her mouth and swallowed it. She opened her mouth to answer as the kunoichi in the room sat forward almost desperate to hear her answer.

As Noriko opened her mouth but the only thing that came out of her mouth was a groan of pain as she rolled over onto her side, holding her stomach.

The kunoichi's eyes flew wide open, recognizing the effects of poison was a requirement to become a Chuunin, which all of the kunoichi in the room were.

"No-chan!" shouted Sakura and Temari as the two of them rushed to the prone figure of their friend.

"Neji-niisan!" shouted Hinata in a commanding voice that she rarely, if ever, used.

The door to the room flew open and Neji's face appeared. The Shinobi took the scene in and was back out shouting orders before the door had even finished opening.

"You!" He shouted at a group of servants. "Find and bring the chefs! You! Get the medic! And you! Find… No Summon… damn… Get Hiashi-sama!"

Within moments the entire Hyuuga household was in chaos, and soon most of the village Jounin and ANBU had been alerted to an assignation attempt on the Hyuuga Heiress's life as well as several other kunoichi.

The small team of Hyuuga ninja that had been sent to _retrieve_ the chefs encountered a gruesome sight. One of the Chefs had committed _seppuku_ with a kitchen knife, one had vanished, and the other two had been bound, eyes put out and tongues cut out and pinned to the wall behind them.

It was a sad day for the Hyuuga household indeed. There had not been an assassination, either attempted or succeeded, in the complex in four generations; and even then the man who had been assassinated was a vile shrew who hated everything that moved unless it was himself.

But all was not lost.

Some of the household couldn't believe it, but there was the seal on Noriko's stomach.

Kyuubi no Kitsune was still inside of her.

The kunoichi and Shinobi couldn't believe what they saw in the final battle of the war was a GenJutsu. And even with this new knowledge they were still stunned to see Noriko get up from the poisoned cramp that she had been held in for the past few minutes. It had been a slow healing, or at least by Kyuubi's standards.

Though she seemed okay, the medic from the Hyuuga family insisted on forcing her to the infirmary for observation while the whole mess with the chefs could be settled out.

It was a few hours after the guards had found the… _chefs' remains_ when Hyuuga Hiashi waltzed his way into the infirmary where all the kunoichi were taking various antidotes as a preventative measure and Noriko sitting with them, all of them surrounded by a mixture of medics, guards, and one very frazzled Neji.

The clan head coughed to gain their attention. The various guards and medics bowed deeply, the kunoichi bowed their heads a little and went back to their antidotes, and Noriko waved to him while smiling brightly.

"Well…" sighed the white-eyed man. "I'm afraid that the two blinded and muted chefs didn't survive the blood loss… and the escaped man is being followed by several hunter ninja."

There was no response from any of the room's occupants.

"There is still the small matter of whether you wish to remain here until Hokage-sama can finds you an apartment or if you wish to find other arrangements."

All eyes turned to Noriko.

If the power in the room had gone out, her blush would have still lighted up the room.

"If I may… I would like to stay here… if you don't mind that is…"

Hiashi looked at her for a few moments, then sighed as he shook his head. "Neji… put her in bed… Then leave me alone in the quiet… I don't know how but I've got a hangover bigger than that Uchia brat's ego…"

Sakura fumed as the rest of the room winced.

Recovering from her cringe, Noriko cocked her head ton one side and said, however eloquently, "Huh?" She then Looked over at Hinata and asked the kunoichi, "What did he mean- EEP!"

She hadn't noticed as Neji came up behind her and squeaked when he lifted her up by her waist and cradled her against his chest, one arm behind her shoulders the other under her knees, and walked out of the room.

Noriko blushed so deeply that it seemed that there was not enough blood for the rest of her body to sustain life. "Y-you r-r-really d-don't have t-t-t-t-to do t-t-t-this N-N-Neji-san… I… I can w-w-walk." She said while unconsciously snuggling deeper into his chest a bit, causing her chest to rub against his.

It was lucky for Neji that Noriko's face was snuggled into his chest because at the brushing of Noriko's chest against his; his face turned such a vibrant red that outclassed the color of the darkest cheery.

"I know that Nor(Crack)ko-chan… but I want to." Neji said in a much higher voice than he probably intended.

Noriko didn't know what to say to that, no one, bar the five kunoichi that she had "met" that night, for the most part had ever wanted to do anything to or for her that did not involve causing her pain. She found herself reevaluating how she felt about Neji. Sure the Hyuuga was desirable, in fact she could feel the muscles in his chest and arms, could hear the kindness in his voice and feel the gentleness in his actions toward her.

In the years under her GenJutsu she had watched the men of the village. Though if she was completely honest with herself, after observing the Shinobi of the village she had opened herself to the idea of loving another woman, but she found that the kunoichi, though nice and certainly desirable, as all but worthless and weak; she could just not bring herself to attempt a relationship with one of the kunoichi. The men of the village were, either stuck-up, arrogant, stupid, angsty, emo, or any combination of the list. Even though there were some that were not any of these, these few men could not stand up to her fire, they would melt and evaporate and leave her alone again, and for that very reason she had resolved never to enter a relationship with any man. But now… Neji was breaking every single one of the shields that she had put up against these very feelings, it was even harder to keep the shields up after he had given her his father's wedding ring…

_FLASHBACK_

_It was just before the Chuunin exam finals, and 'Naruto' was sitting under a blooming Sakura Tree. It was slightly late in the blooming season and the blossoms were floating down off of the tree in a sort of snow, the tree was huge and the branches of other Sakura trees reached over 'Naruto,' the result was large hills of the fallen blossoms that resembled a pink snow. _

_'He' was so absorbed in watching the blossoms fall 'he' didn't even notice that someone was watching him until…_

_"Noriko-san." Came the voice._

_'Naruto' gave no impression that 'he' had heard the voice that could be seen, though if 'he' wasn't half covered in the fallen blossoms one would've seen 'his' hand move over to hover of the kunai pouch strapped to 'his' leg. _

_There was a deep sigh, then a thunk._

_Then person had thrown a mask down in front of him. It was a falcon mask that closely resembled an ANBU mask, but clearly wasn't._

_"Hello Neji-san…" said 'Naruto' relaxing a bit, after studying the mask, it had been a gift to Neji from the Sandaime for a job well done during a incident that had happened years before, but had never really become public knowledge. _

_"Come sit. Be at peace." Continued 'Naruto.'_

_"There is no peace, Noriko-san, we are at war; but thank you, I shall." Neji replied sitting down next to 'him.' _

_"You know that we are always at war, Neji-san." Replied 'Naruto,' moving slightly away from the young man as he sat on top of the blossoms._

_"Yes." Was his cool reply._

_"At war with another village, war with other people, war with ourselves."_

_"Yes."_

_"Only when we hold no malice in our hearts can there be true peace. Only when the people of the world can take life in every breath…"_

_"I know."_

_"Only-"_

_'Naruto' never got to finish this statement as 'he' was pushed over into a large pile of blossoms by the judicial arm of the young man that had taken a seat next to her._

_This time, as opposed to other times when 'Naruto' got mad, Noriko came up, out of the blossoms, spluttering, her face flushed with anger, and in that anger, dropped her GenJutsu._

_It was in the very moment that Noriko up out of the blossoms that everything changed._

_Something had changed in that moment, Noriko could feel it; she would later find out from Lee, that this was the first time that Neji had truly seen her; or as Lee put it: "Neji won't stop going on about this girl he'd met, saying that he'd seen the most beautiful girl in the world."_

_It had been the first time that Neji had really seen Noriko as a female, a female, that was definitely not 'Naruto.'_

_Noriko could even hear the change in Neji's voice as he tried, in vain, to continue talking to her without seeming to be affected by his new view of Noriko. His voice cracked like a pre-teen's when he tried to continue._

_"Nor(crack)ko-san… You're getting philosophical again."_

_Noriko cocked her head to one side and said, very eloquently, "Huh?"_

_Neji sighed, valiantly fighting his blush, to him, Noriko was so… words failed him. "When ever you get depressed you start think way to much."_

_"Oh…" was the airy reply._

_"Besides… Hokage-sama sent me with something for you that he found in his desk."_

_Noriko's eyes lit up and the fox ears on the top of her head began to twitch, and if Neji could see it, so had her tail. Then, without warning, Noriko leapt at Neji and, after the flurry of blossoms in the air had settled, ended up with a mouthful of the fallen blossoms. _

_"Don't do that." Said Neji, who had somehow moved to the other side of her ans was looking down on her with a slight smirk on his face._

_Noriko looked up at him, spitting the blossoms out of her mouth, and pouted. _

_It took all of Neji's profound will power not to get down on his knees and kiss her._

_"One of these days, Neji-san, one of these days you're gonna get a hug, and I'll be damned if I don't give it to you." Noriko said, still pouting and crossed her arms over her chest._

_Neji's smirk only grew._

_Noriko humph-ed and sat back against the Sakura tree, her pout increasing._

_"Undoubtedly it will be you who gives me this hug." Sighed Neji as he sat down next to Noriko, leaning back against the tree, his arms crossed behind his head. "You've been so determined to do this that you've even taken to following me when I'm off duty and then trying to ambush me."_

_Noriko couldn't help but laugh, in fact she laughed so hard that she had to lean against Neji to keep her balance. Little did she know that these very actions caused Neji's heart to leap in his chest and he could've sworn that Noriko's very sensitive ears could hear the increase in his heart rate, hell he thought that anyone standing within thirty feet of the two of them could hear his heart._

_"Yeah…" wheezed Noriko, recovering from her laughter, but she didn't get up from Neji's shoulder. "That was pretty funny."_

_"Funny my ass." Barked out Neji, once again loosing his cool and his battle against his blush ._

_**Flashback within a FLASHBACK**_

_**On that particular incident, Noriko had been tailing Neji as he went about the village, running errands for someone in the Hyuuga house, doing odd jobs about the village as freelanced D-ranked missions, as the Shinobi Handbook told him. As soon as it appeared that he was finished and was heading back to the compound, Noriko struck. She jumped out of the tree she had been hiding in, right at Neji.**_

_**And ended up with a mouthful of grass and dirt and a smirking Neji looking down at her.**_

_**It should be noted that his incident happened during the times that Noriko never took down her disguise, ever, only when she had been confronted by Neji and she had shown him her true form but even that was only for about five minutes. **_

_**Unfortunately for Neji, Hinata chose that moment to walk by the two of them, all she saw was a bruised and battered 'Naruto' and a smirking Neji standing over 'him,' and immediately assumed that Neji had beaten up her crush.**_

_**Hinata had never chewed anyone out before in her entire life, but boy… When she chewed out Neji, she made up for lost time.**_

_**End Flashback within a FLASHBACK**_

_"The look on your face…" Laughed Noriko, leaning against him even harder than before._

_"Shut up." Came the harsh reply._

_Noriko just smirked, an evil glint coming into her eyes. Slowly and deliberately, she crawled over Neji on her hands and knees, straddling his legs, swaying her hips, looking ever the part of the seductress, until she was just inches away from his face. She paused, her eyes searching his face for some sort of rejection, and finding none that she could see, began to close the distance between their lips. And just before their lips touched a large group of young academy students came crashing through the clearing followed be an irate teacher that looked oddly like Iruka._

_The instant that Neji registered the students, he leapt away from Noriko blindingly fast, he face was creating new shades of red. Noriko, on the other hand, sat back on her heels, looking completely unabashed and very disappointed The moment that Noriko had created was shot to hell. _

_"H-Here." Said Neji, trying desperately to regain control of the situation, handing her a small black box from the pouch at his hip._

_Noriko took it from him and opened it._

_She gasped, inside was a plain white gold ring, about a centimeter thick, there was not a mark that could be seen on the ring._

_"Look on the inside…" whispered Neji._

_Noriko took the ring in her hand and look on the inside, it was engraved with:_

_I will always love you my daughter._

_-Namikaze Minato_

_Noriko was speechless; everything that she had ever received from anyone in the past had never been like this. If she got nothing that wasn't hateful glares or the odd rotting foodstuff thrown at her, it was never of the greatest quality, most of the time is was so cheep it could've been a toy._

_"It's your father's wedding ring…" Said Neji, still whispering, quite confident that he had regained control. "Hokage-sama found it in his desk and assigned me to deliver it to you."_

_"Oji-san knows…?"_

_"Of course he knows, he knows just about everything that goes on in or around the village."_

_"Stupid crystal ball." Muttered Noriko darkly._

_Neji, couldn't help but smile, Noriko could always make him smile, she was so… damn, words failed him again. With a gentle hand, he took the ring from Noriko's fingers and placed the box on her lap._

_Taking her hand in his free hand, Neji gently place the ring on her right middle finger the way that a man might place a ring on his fiancé's finger._

_The two of them sat there in silence, Neji holding her hand in his two larger ones. _

_"By the way Noriko-san…" said Neji, breaking the silence._

_"Hmm?" sighed Noriko, a slight blush forming on her face._

_"Don't call me Neji-san, it makes me feel old."_

_"Same for me then, Neji-SAN" replied Noriko, stressing the suffix teasingly._

_"Deal Noriko-chan." Said Neji very quickly_

_Noriko gave him the biggest, most grateful smile that he had ever seen from anyone._

_"Thank you Neji-kun."_

_END FLASHBACK_

Noriko was brought out of her trip down memory lane by Neji gently setting down on a futon in the large room that the five of them had been staying in earlier.

"I'll be down the hall if you need anything, and there will be patrols down these halls and outside for the remaining time that you are here." 

Whispered Neji, pulling the blanket up over her and tucking her in, with one hand he brushed a stray hair out of her face. Neji went out the door saying. "Goodnight Noriko-chan."

-Meanwhile-

"Hinata-sama, may I have a moment please?" asked the Hyuuga medic that had worked with Noriko during the crisis.

"Yes?" replied Hinata, stopping and signaling the other kunoichi to stop as well. "What can I do for you?"

"How long has Noriko-san been under that hidden-sex GenJutsu?"

"How would you know something like that?" asked a very startled Temari.

"I am a member of the Hyuuga-branch house with no seal, and as a medic I would be able to see the effects of Chakra on the body system." Replied the medic calmly, there was a certain warmth about this medic.

"Oh…" sighed the now deflating Temari.

"But what of it?" asked Sakura, thinking that there was something wrong with her "new" friend.

"The GenJutsu had stunted her hormonal development. There was evidence of her monthly menstrual cycle, and the obvious development her breasts. But when I take in to account the obvious residual Chakra all over the parts of her body that would normally have the most hormones, they are severely deprived of hormones. I find it astonishing that she has had any pubescent development at all. If she was to develop be herself without the GenJutsu, her breasts should've been at least 38C or 34D, at the most a 36D at the most, but not the mid-B that she is right now."

There was an awkward silence

"I think that I can give you the answer for that." Said Sakura, blushing from the frank description of the medic. "I know that from my apprenticeship with Tsunade-sensei, that there was a young-girl living with her for about six months, and now that I think about it, she did look a lot like Noriko. I would guess that it was during this time that the majority of… um… her… development took place."

"That would make sense Sakura-san." Said the Hyuuga Medic, crossing her arms and nodding.

"This is all nice and everything, but what would we do with this information?" asked the furiously blushing Tenten.

"Well…" said the medic, rubbing her hands together. "It would be good if we could restart the process, though it would be best if we could jump start the process and get it finished by morning."

"And how would we do that?" asked Ino.

"Hinata-sama can do it quite easily." Replied the medic.

"Really? How?" asked the surprised Hyuuga Heiress.

"It's actually quite simple, really." Said the medic going into what normal people would call a 'lecture mode.' "Just activate your Byakugan, look for the tenketsu right behind the pituitary gland, and then send a moderate jolt of chakra into the tenketsu, not enough to block it though. This should, how you say, 'jump start' the gland and give it more than enough Chakra to finish puberty by the end of the week, but I think with the Kyuubi no Kitsune within her, puberty will be finished by morning."

There was a silence in the infirmary.

Then Hinata spoke. "If this is true, then we will need to make adjustments to the clothing that we got her today."

"Yeah…" said Sakura, thinking back to the lingerie store that they'd been in earlier. "We'll have to get her new bras and make changes to the ninja outfit that we had made for her."

"That will be no problem, the Hyuuga clan can do the adjustments with a few looks after the jump start, and the bras can be bought before the stores close today, and if they are closed, then they will be open for the official messengers of the clan." Hinata said, looking at her hands in awe.

"Let's get this done. I want to see her after we get rid of this restriction on her hormones." Temari said, with an odd look on her face. "though if she gets anymore sexy, Neji'll have to beat the other boys off with a bat."

The other girls voiced their agreements and they all left the infirmary in a large group. As they approached the room they heard a small voice singing. The five of them got right up next to the door, and listened very closely.

"_Hush little demon… don't you cry… No one cares how you feel inside… No one's gonna love you… no one's gonna hold you… no it won't be alright… Alone in the darkness… with no one there… and so what if it isn't fair? You're a little monster, an evil demon… and for that they'll never care."_

It was so plainly Noriko. There was absolutely no mistaking that voice, a voice that held so much indescribable pain and loneliness.

Through the crack in the door the five of them watched Noriko rock herself to sleep, her knees and tail pulled up to her chest. Slowly the fox-girl rolled onto her side and with a few more soft whimpers she fell asleep.

The Kunoichi looked at each other, before Ino voiced what they were all thinking. "What in the hell was that?"

No one spoke for a few moments, then, "I don't know, Ino-chan." Said Temari. "But I'd be willing to do anything to make sure I never heard anything like that again."

"I'm with you Tem-chan…" whispered Tenten. "That broke my heart."

"Come on girls, let's get her fixed up and get to bed ourselves, there should never be a reason for her to sing like that again." Said Hinata.

There was a chorus of soft agreements as the five of them entered the room as softly as they could, and as a group gathered around the sleeping form of the fox-girl. Hinata sat back on her heels, right next to Noriko's head, and with a practiced hand, she rolled her head so that she could easily access the tenketsu on her neck.

"Ready?" Sakura whispered to Hinata.

"As I'll ever be." Was the even softer reply, the pale-eyed Heiress activated her Byakugan and placed two fingers on what the others assumed was the tenketsu and there was a small flash of blue Chakra.

Noriko's entire body jerked violently, but kept sleeping as though the five of them had not been messing with.

Hinata deactivated her eyes and sat back with the others and watched, in utter awe, as the changed actually started before their very eyes. Noriko's body began to change, her breasts began to fill out ever so slightly as they watched, as did her hips, though they couldn't tell if there was any change in height.

The five of them looked at each other once again, shrugged, and let in the head tailor of the Hyuuga clan. Who, upon entering took one look at Noriko with his Byakugan, nodded and left without saying a word.

"Do they ever talk?" asked Sakura, slightly disturbed out by the tailor.

"Not really…" said Hinata. "No."

Ino yawned. "Bed… now… so tired…"

The others crawled onto their various futons and within moments were asleep.

THE NEXT MORNING

The evil rays of the morning sun broke through the large window in the room and, of course, hit Noriko right in the face. With a great effort, she tried, in vain, to stay asleep, but, alas, it was all for naught. With a great sigh, she sat upright on her futon and stretched. She was not aware that the other kunoichi had been up for an hour trying to get her clothing ready for her new body shape, and boy had she changed. For one, her breasts were larger, about a 34D(1) and thus accentuating her new body; which had become an amazing supple hourglass-like shape, and her hair… Her hair was now just a bit longer, reaching to her shoulders and still as unruly as ever, it still stuck out at odd places, though it was still silky smooth and as blindingly golden blonde as before.

Her fellow kunoichi couldn't help but gawk. She had changed so much!

Temari was right, Neji would have to keep the other men off of her with a bat and his genius with the Jyuken Fighting Style.

The supple curve of her breasts and hips all curved together in a magnificent symphony of feminine beauty. She looked so soft and perfectly cuddle-able; the kind of girl that every man wants to hold in his arms after a long hard day at work. Her shirt, once stopping a few inches above the bottom of her pants was now revealing several glorious inches of her midriff, all of it a perfect golden tan; was now stretched quite tight across her chest.

Also it seemed as if her tail was sleeker though still as fluffy as it ever was; her fox ears where just a hint longer; and when she turned around to face them the distinctive whisker marks on her cheeks, though darker were thinner and daintier.

"Good Morning!" she greeted the kunoichi as she realized that they were awake. She stood up, ready to bounce over to the five of them to give Hinata a hug and to glomp Temari, but while standing she over balanced and ended up with a face full of the tatami mat.

The five kunoichi burst out laughing.

Noriko sat up on her knees and looked down at herself. Everyone stopped moving at stared at her, wondering what her reaction was going to be.

Noriko took one of her hands and cupped one of her breasts, and giggled, saying "Okay… those are mine…" Then the fox-girl proceeded to pat down the rest of her body, checking everything that had seemed to have changed. Upon finishing, Noriko looked up at them, "Okay… what did that medic do to me? Wait… No… what did she ask you to do, Hinata-chan?"

The five of them stared at her; if they had been in her situation they would've had more loud/violent reactions.

"Y-You're n-n-n-not m-m-mad?" asked the paled eyed heiress.

"That was one impressive stutter, but no."

"But why?" asked Sakura, wondering what was going on in the girls mind.

"Kyuubi-nichan told me what you did and what she did in return. All six of your actions where for my benefit… so why the hell should I be mad at you?"

"You haven't really changed have you?" asked Ino, throwing a cushion at the fox girl.

"If you mean my personality, then hell no. But if you mean my appearance, then you would know that better than I would, now wouldn't you, Ino-chan?" Replied Noriko dodging the thrown cushion with ease; and sat down in between Hinata and Temari.

The five of them sat in a silence that seemed to go on for forever, until…

A low rumble shook the room, knocking the six of them off of their seats.

Noriko, put a hand behind her head, and, with a grin, "Sorry 'bout that…"

"No-chan…" said Tenten, "Was that your STOMACH!?!"

"Heh, heh, heh." Was the chuckling reply.

"You're not all that hungry are you Noriko, usually you would've knocked something over." Said Sakura, grinning at the fox-girl, who at the time; was helping Temari back to her knees.

"It's got to be something about being a Jinchuriki, right?" asked Temari, shaking her head. "Gaara's always hungry."

Noriko just smirked and absent mindedly pulled down her shirt a bit. "That has something to do with it, but most of the time, we just like to eat more than other people; it's fun."

The others in the room sweat dropped.

"What?" asked Noriko, looking around at their disbelieving faces. "I like to eat, is that a problem?"

"N-no…" said Hinata, her mind was a complete blank slate.

"Damn…" muttered Ino, the health nut who was always worrying about her figure. "That's just so damn unfair."

There was a sudden knock at the door, causing everyone to jump.

"Hinata-sama." Came the cool voice of Neji.

"Yes, Neji-nisan?" replied Hinata.

"Please wake Noriko-s-"

He was cut off by Noriko loudly clearing her throat.

"Noriko-chan? Good. You're awake." He was still standing out in the hall. "You need to get ready; Tsunade-sama will be awaiting you in an hour. Your clothing is in the hall." And with that, they heard his retreating footsteps.

"Clothes?" asked Noriko, cocking her head "I thought that all of my clothes were in here…"

"No-chan take a look at yourself in the mirror over there." Said Temari, pulling Noriko to her feet with her back to Temari's front and walked the girl to the mirror, then gestured at her body. "You've CHANGED! You've grown several sizes here." Temari placed her hands under the fox-girls breasts, though not toughing them. "Here." This time her hands went to the girl's hips. "And her-"

"I get it!" shrieked Noriko, jumping away from the sand kunoichi, blushing furiously. "Just let me eat something, and then you can have your way with me."  
"Yay!" shouted Ino, clapping her hands.

_'Damn… what have I gotten myself into Ni-chan?" Noriko thought to herself._

_**'I don't know kit, but you have to admit, it's funny as hell.' Replied Kyuubi with a soft chuckle.**_

_'Who asked you anyways, furball?'_

_**'You did.'**_

_'Shut up.'_

"She's slipped off into dream land again, hasn't she?" asked Ino at they five of them watched the fox-girl stare off into space.

"Give her a minute…" whispered Tenten. "I'd suspect that she talking to Kyuubi-san."

"If she's not done by the time the food gets here, the smell of the food prepared by father's cooks will bring her out of her conversation." Said Hinata, sitting back on to her rear and relaxed.

It was only a few minutes later when Neji and the guards under his command brought the food; six trays, each with a bowl of rice, white miso soup, pickled vegetables, and tea.

Hinata was very right, the smell of the food was amazing, and the instant a tray was in front of her she snapped out of her conversation with Kyuubi and dug into the food in front of her. And again they saw that Noriko was still the same "boy" that they had all come to know and love, she ate like a woman who had been starved for weeks.

Finishing the rice with a large swallow, she sat back with a sigh. "Damn that was some good stuff."

The other kunoichi stared at her in shock, this was becoming quite common for these people, did they not remember Naruto at all?

Hinata quickly finished her food as did Temari and Sakura, and as one the three of them stood and pounced on Noriko.

"It's time…" said Hinata in a dark voice.

"Wha…?" gasped Noriko as the three kunoichi approached her and watched in horror as they dragged her off to another room…

A HALF-HOUR LATER

The three kunoichi emerged from the room; there had been a struggle and quite a few squeaks of terror; not to mention enough girlish giggles to make the room sound like an all girls-school dorm after hours.

And then Noriko emerged, cursing.

The others stared in sock at her; the outfit that they had gotten for her was the absolute best thing that they could've gotten for her.

It was a very short kimono that barely reached a quarter of the way down her long magnificently tanned thigh; it was dyed to a point that it was so dark; it might as well have been black. The sleeves of this 'kimono' were cut unevenly as though to make them look like the petals of the sakura tree's blossoms. The front of the kimono was open enough that one might've been able to see the curve of her cleavage if it were not for the fresh white wrappings that hid them from view. In addition to the kimono there was a black obi with gold accents that held the robe tight across her frame, accenting her already supple curves. Her obi had gold chords coming off it that hung about half a meter to the ground. With the wrappings binding her breasts there were also wrappings around her forearms and on her calves. Though right now she was barefoot, in addition there was a pair of black sandals that went with the kimono. Her hair was left down, with a small length of ribbon inside the folds of the robe in case it was ever in need of being tied back.

"Holy…" gasped Ino

"Hot damn girls!" Shouted Tenten, "We chose good; didn't we?"

"Yeah, we did, but that leave us with only ten minutes to get ready." Shot Hinata,

"Who needs more than ten minutes?" asked Temari, pulling a scroll out of her hip bag that was lying on the floor next to her. With a practiced ease she whirled the scroll about in and in seconds a light had obscured her from view and when it died, there was Temari, sitting in all her kunoichi glory, even her huge battle fan was with her.

"You know…" said Ino. "I'd forgotten that we can do that…"

Then without warning, Noriko jumped on Temari, shouting. "Show me!"

The other four kunoichi left the room as Temari showed Noriko how to do the _"get dressed"_ scroll jutsu.

It was minutes before Noriko had to be in front of the "Forest of Death" for her test when the six of them set off, running as fast as they could; hearing the wolf whistles and cat calls as Noriko shot past the men of the village.

They arrived right on time.

There was a set of bleachers with a few people already in them, including Iruka, Hizashi, Kurenai, Anako, and several other Jounin, Chuunin, and Genin. Tsunade was standing in front of the bleachers, backed by a group of nine or ten ANBU, with a very annoyed Kakashi and Sasuke with them, snow still coating their clothes. Sasuke's eyes widened as he saw Noriko, he had seen her somewhere before, but where…?

"There you are." Said Tsunade smiled. "We've been waiting."

"Neji-kun said be here at ten," said Noriko. "It's-" but was cut off as the clock tower began to chime ten.

"He told you ten? I told him nine-thirty!" shouted Tsunade, sending a glare into the group of ANBU.

"Don't blame him…" said Noriko, scratching the back of her head. "You heard about the disturbance at the compound."

"I wouldn't call it a disturbance…" muttered Tsunade darkly.

"Hush you." Snickered Noriko, her smile sent the hearts of several of the ANBU, who as Tsunade knew were all men, fluttering.

Tsunade couldn't help but smile, the girl was so damn cute. "How 'bout we get going with this test, I'll bet these people have something better to do than to sit here watching us gosip."

"I'll bet they'd rather just sit and stare at us, judging from the blank stares that we're getting. It's like they've never seen a woman before."

_'More like they haven't seen such a good looking one before, No-chan…'_ thought Tsunade. Then the Hokage turned to all of the people there, and announced. "Welcome one and all to a special placement test for one Uzumaki Noriko. The test will take place in three parts, all of which will take over the place of four hours total.

"The first part will have Noriko hide in the forest and the group of ANBU plus Kakashi and Sasuke searching for her, if she lasts for over 30 minutes she passes, and if she can last longer the better grade she'll get, lasting for the entire hour… well… that says something about our ANBU squad doesn't it?"

There was a round of generous chuckling as the ANBU shuffled their feet nervously, unbeknownst to anyone else; they had been warned to be ready for anything.

Tsunade turned to the fox-girl with a stern expression, got out a large hourglass, turned it over, and, with a grin, said, "Go."

Noriko was gone the instant Tsunade was finished speaking.

The reader should note that the large group of people was about 50 meters from the edge of the Forest of Death. Noriko had crossed that distance in the time that it took the observers and the ANBU to realize that she was gone.

There was a round of softer cursing from the ANBU as they took off after the kunoichi-to-be, and split off into their separate cells, with Sasuke and Kakashi by themselves.

Little did they realize that of all the places in the world, Noriko felt most at home in the forest, they were fighting a battle that was impossible for anyone to win. Noriko could watch the ANBU without them even sensing her, she could all but jump on them without any of them noticing, so naturally she used this to her advantage, playing all sorts of tricks on them. A simple GenJutsu on one to make him look like her, a few hot pink paint bombs, and several shadow clones all over the place, setting up traps and small explosives for the ANBU to trip. Some of the clones were carving special seals into the trees of the forest, something special.

30 minutes came and went without a real sighting of Noriko, just as Tsunade had bet the members of the high council. Only time would tell how much she had actually won from those over-bearing-fuss-pots.

The alarm marking the half-hour mark went off, sending the ANBU in a frenzy, and in their hurry, they started making mistakes; allowing for Noriko to tag them with Chakra markings for pranks that would happen later when she was out and about in the village.

The minutes ticked by and soon there was only five minutes until the end of part one…

Four…

Three…

Two…

One…

A Huge bell went off over the forest, sending birds flying from their trees and small animals running for their holes. Then Tsunade came over a loudspeaker sending the message to halt the search and then for Noriko to return to the clearing.

"The first part of the exam is now over." The Hokage called. "All ANBU return to base, do not engage target. I repeat DO NOT ENGAGE TARGET! Noriko come to the clearing, code: green!"

Noriko, smiled, that was a code between the ANBU and her that there was no danger of being attacked, but just be ready for an accidental confrontation or an ambush.

She was about 30 yards from the edge of the forest, she felt someone land behind her, and then there was and arm about her waist and two hands groping her breasts.

"How 'bout some love…?" growled a deep voice in her ear.

**In the clearing the returning ANBU.**

Most of the ANBU were gathered in the clearing, waiting for the stragglers to come in, Sasuke and Kakashi were off to the side, talking quietly, trying to solve the mystery that was this girl that they were testing and why in the seven layers of hell had they been forced to return from their journey to the Ice Country with "up-most haste."

Tsunade was standing off to another side with one ANBU standing next to her, she was tapping her foot impatiently with her arms crossed over her chest.

Then… A high pitched scream cut through the air, "YOU PERVERT!!!"

The sounds of slaps, punches, breaking trees, breaking bones, snapping ligaments, and screams of pain floated through the air, the ANBU and others in the clearing sweat dropped.

"Who isn't here?" asked Tsunade.

"That would be… damn…" muttered the ANBU in the tiger mask next to her. "It's master sergeant Lion."

"And he is…?" asked Tsunade

"Imagine Jiraiya-sama, then make him about 18 years old, and now give him absolutely no morals what so ever; and you have master sergeant Lion."

"He's going to die isn't he?" asked Tsunade, shaking her head in a mixture of disgust and shame in her own ANBU.

"He won't be seeing active action for the longest time."

"… If he survives, it really depends on how much Noriko hurt him."

An even louder crack split the air, and an uncomfortable silence hung in the air as Noriko came stomping into the clearing, fuming and snarling, Kyuubi's Chakra flowing in waves off of her.

"He's dead isn't he…?" Tsunade asked another ANBU, this one wearing a sparrow mask.

"I would think so…" the man replied, a little worry in his voice.

"Damn pervert…" muttered the kunoichi, cracking her knuckles and scowling at the other ANBU standing next to and around the Hokage. "Don't even try to touch me... Like that…"

The ANBU cowered under her glare.

Tsunade walk up to her and pulled her into a hug. "Welcome to the world of beautiful kunoichi No-chan." She whispered.

Noriko let loose a string of curses that would've burnt the bark off a tree.

Tsunade winced.

Finally Noriko wound herself down, and melted in her embrace.

"You going be okay to continue the exam?" asked Tsunade, holding Noriko gently in her arms, much like a mother would hold her distraught daughter.

Noriko nodded before pushing herself away from the Hokage and straightening her kimono. "I'm gonna kill those son-of-a-bitches, they're all gonna die."

Tsuande sighed deeply, but said, "Fine… Just don't kill too may of them… I still need some people to spar with… you know, just to keep my girlish figure."

Noriko bit her lip, trying to keep herself from laughing.

"What's that supposed to mean!?!" the Hokage shouted at the girl in front of her, shaking her fist in her face.

"Nothin'…" sighed Noriko, avoiding Tsunade's eyes.

"It better be nothing…" Muttered Tsunade, pulling Noriko back toward the clearing, all the while sending subtle hand signals to the ANBU to stay at least 3 meters away from the girl. She then turned and addressed the crowd, which had grown larger as the word had spread through the village about the special exam.

"This next part of the exam will involve all of the remaining ANBU going into the forest while Noriko in after them, she had one hour to find, subdue, and capture all of them and to take their masks. The capture of four ANBU masks will result in a mere pass, the more captured will result in a higher score. GO!"

This time there was no pause in the announcement for the ANBU to run into the forest, but it was only instants later that they were running into the forest at their top speeds; Noriko strangely stood still watching them run.

And everyone in turn held his or her breath as the watched Noriko.

And they waited.

And waited…

And waited…

Then the fox-girl began to move.

She bit her thumb and her hands began to move faster than any eye could see, Kekkai Genkai, or not.

There was a huge inrush of Chakra as she bellowed, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!!!"

The entire clearing filled with smoke billowing up from the ground where Noriko had slammed her palm into the ground.

The smoke cloud filled the entire clearing and filtered into the forest itself, creating about a foot of fog floating at the feet of the hiding ANBU. Through the cloud, the members of the ever growing audience could hear a mixture of thuds, thumps, yelps, and twangs.

This could of smoke hung in the air, resisting dissipation.

"Oh for the love of…" muttered Temari as she whipped out her fan, from no where, and with one mighty blast, blew the cloud of smoke far, far away with one great wave of the huge battle fan.

What was under the cloud shocked them all.

In front of them was a large mass of foxes, gathered in a semi-circle facing the forest. These foxes ranged in all colors and had any number of tails; ranging from one up to four. All of them, minus one, were holding or in front of an instrument of some kind.

Then the shadow fell across the crowd, and, as one, they all looked up at the source of the shadow.

I was a fox.

I giant, crimson fox, who's head, was well over the tops of the trees in the Forest of Death. This fox possessed nine crimson tails, all of which were swaying in the wind behind it. This fox was most definitely a vixen, the shape of its torso, although still very fox-like, had the curves, suppleness, and hourglass-shape of a human female.

"Kyaa!" shrieked Noriko from atop the great fox's head. "You came, Ni-chan!"

Something clicked in their minds; this was _**THE**_ great Kyuubi, the nearly-all-powerful nine-tailed fox demon that had nearly leveled Konoha nearly 18 years previous.

The huge vixen closed her glorious green eyes in a very foxy smile, and let loose what seemed to be a mixture of a growl and a purr as Noriko hugged her head.

The two of them stayed like that for a few moments, there seemed to be a silent form of communication going between the two of them.

Then Noriko jumped down from the Kyuubi's head and said to the mass of foxes, all of whom were watching her with all of their attention. She waved and smiled brightly at them causing some of the white foxes to turn a light shade of pink…

"Ready?" asked Noriko, rubbing her hands together deviously causing shivers to run up the spectators' spines

The great vixen nodded her great head.

"Then lets do this." Shot Noriko walking over to stand between the mass of foxes and the forest, her hands once again flying through seals.

The audience had a bad feeling about what was bout to happen, after all, the Hokage had never put restrictions on what the Shinobi/Kunoichi could and could not do, that apparently included the use of lethal force.

Then suddenly Noriko's hands stopped moving and there was a huge inrush of Chakra as what ever remnants of the smoke from the earlier jutsu was blasted away.

An odd reddish glow flickered to life around Noriko's body, forming phantasmal flames that licked the air around her lazily.

It was at this moment that the audience noticed that the group of foxes had begun to play; this was literally the best background music for the scene.

The music was alternating between low and higher pitched voices, both playing a similar rhythm and was rising to a massive crescendo, and upon reaching its peak dropped back down to very soft. It was like nature itself was helping this orchestra, just as the foxes dropped their volume level down low, thunder crashed over the forest as clouds began to spin around the center of the forest in an almost hurricane-like pattern.

**WITH THE ANBU**

Kakashi and Sasuke were confident that they had found the perfect hiding spot, huddled in the hollow of one of the biggest trees in the whole forest with one or two of the other ANBU.

"She'll never find us here." Muttered an ANBU wearing a dog mask, his twin, sitting next to him, grunted in agreement.

"I don't know…" whispered another ANBU, this one wearing a hawk mask. "From what Squad Leader _Flaming Youth_ said, we were not to underestimate her."

Little did they know that the seals that Noriko had carved while she was the hunted had begun to glow a pale blue.

**WITH NORIKO AND THE FOX ORCHESTRA**

The orchestra was beginning to slow its tempo as it got louder and louder and the low voices became more and more powerful in several magnificent blasts. Then the entirety of the instruments came in a huge and magnificent fanfare with bells ringing in the background.

The end was in sight, the audience could feel it, the tension was building as the light of the sun was darkened and night seemed to fall.

"Look!" shouted Iruka, pointing at the forest. "The forest."

And indeed there was something odd about the forest.

Along the horizon there was a blue glow beginning to form, lighting the sky just a little bit.

**ANBU**

"Damn…" said Kakashi, he had begun to feel the building Chakra from the seals all over the forest.

"Wha-" said the ANBU in the dog mask.

"Run!" Sasuke screamed at the three of them, his Sharingan activated as he tried to leap out of the hollow.

But it was far too late.

**NORIKO**

The music had reached its final crescendo, all of the voices in unison, they played several very fast and short notes followed by a cannon blast from somewhere in the percussion. And, in that cannon blast, the seals activated in a brilliant wave of bright blue Chakra and every single one of the traps the Noriko had set up went off in series, and through the repeated notes and cannon blasts of the orchestra the audience could hear the screams of the ANBU and the small explosions, twangs, or snaps of the traps going off.

And in the final moments of the music, the louder instruments played a similar fanfare as before followed by a short pause of complete silence as one of the ANBU came flying from over the forest to land in a heap, a new one in every pause. They landed side-by-side, all of them looking worse for wear, some of them where even covered in paint or something that made them a different color, until all of them were in a line, tied up and completely unable to stop Noriko from taking their masks.

"Ah so that's Lee-kun…" muttered the Kunoichi as she pulled a _flaming tiger_ mask off one ANBU, and down the line there was Gai-sensei, Shikimaru, Kiba, Akamaru (disguised as Kiba's twin), Choji, Neji-kun, Ebisu-hentai, a few others that she didn't know and of course, Kakashi and Sasuke. When the last two would wake they would find themselves in the worst condition of all of them. The seal had bleached Sasuke's hair to platinum blonde, and Kakashi's normally silver was a rainbow of every color in the visible spectrum not to mention that his skin had been dyed a bright purple, just for kicks.

After collecting the masks Noriko jumped back up onto the giant fox and hugged it with all her might. "Thanks ni-chan!" she shouted. "That was the best."

The great vixen let loose another on of its great purr/growls and it, along with the other foxes vanished in another cloud of smoke.

This time the smoke was quick to clear, leaving Noriko, sitting on the ground, rubbing her butt with what looked like a small white ball of fluff on her shoulder.

"Damn… that hurt…" muttered the fox-girl pulling herself to her feet, brushing the dirt off of her kimono.

"You're okay, right ni-chan?" said the ball of fluff on her shoulder in a high pitched voice, revealing itself to be a very small white fox with only one tail, and brilliant purple eyes.

"I'm fine, but what are you still doing here?" Noriko asked as she surveyed the bound ANBU, now beginning to revive and discover their predicament. "Won't your mother be worried?"

"Nah…" the chibi-kistune replied, licking Noriko's whisker-marked cheek. "Oka-san said that if I was with you it was fine."

Noriko scratched the fox's head a smiled a bit as she continued to watch the ANBU regain consciousness and writhe in their binds.

She didn't notice Sasuke watching her, his Sharingan activated to his fullest extent, his mind slowly putting together the pieces of the mystery that clouded his mind. Or that Kakashi was watching her as well, pride shining in his one visible eye.

"Well I'm in the middle of a test…" Noriko said absent mindedly as the small kitsune nuzzled her cheek. "Could you go and sit with one of my friends until I'm done?"

"Carry me." Was the only reply as the fox wrapped it's tail around her neck.

"…Lazy kitsune." Muttered Noriko as she walked over to the stands where the five kunoichi were awaiting her presence, all of them wearing broad smiles.

Temari tackled Noriko, the small fox jumping from her shoulder into Hinata's lap, all of them were laughing harder than they had since "Naruto" had put dye in Kiba's shampoo and turn both him and Akamaru a brilliant pink that refused to wash out for three weeks and Tsunade-hime had been forced to put Team 8 on domestic duty until the dye washed out.

"Get off me you big lug." Muttered Noriko from underneath Temari, coughing up dirt.

"I am not big." Temari scowled darkly as she stood up and pulled Noriko to her feet.

"Take a good look Tem-chan" said Ino, walking over to Noriko. "No-chan's smaller than all of us, 'cept Hinata-chan 'cause she's always been small."

"oh…"

Noriko just laughed, then started to look around her, looking for something.

"You okay ni-chan?" Shouted the little fox from Hinata's lap.

"There you are." Sighed Noriko, looking slightly relieved. "If I'd lost you, your mother would've had my skin for her doormat."

"No she wouldn't!" the little fox shouted back. "And you know that! Oka-san loves 'ou, and she'd love a little time alone…"

"…You gonna be okay with Hinata-chan?"

The fox leapt up onto the purple-eyed heiress's shoulder and nuzzled said heiress's cheek all the while purring.

"I'll take that as a yes. You going to be okay watching the little trouble-maker while I kick these guys' butts Hinata-chan?"

Hinata scratched the fox's head and nodded slightly with a wry smile.

"You think that they need help untying themselves?" asked Sakura with a little worry in her eyes.

"They shouldn't… they are ANBU that got caught in a very simple to see prank seal." Said Tenten, looking at her boyfriend, Choji with slight disgust in her eyes. "By the way, I love what you did with Sasuke-baka's hair, No-chan."

"Thanks."

"I might just make him leave it like that, just to remember how easily he was humiliated." Said Sakura, trying, in vain, to hold in her laughter.

Again, little did they know that Sasuke was still watching them, the Sharingan user taking mental notes on how easily the girl had integrated into the Kunoichi's lives. The little pieces that he was collecting were falling into a giant puzzle, and some things were staring to clear up from his past years in the ranks of the Konoha Shinobi.

It took them a few more minutes of waiting the ANBU had freed themselves and were now looking very ashamed of how easily Noriko had captured them. Not to mention that according to Konoha tradition, once an ANBU loses his or her mask to another ninja, they do not get another, nor the opportunities earn another.

"Are you ready to continue Noriko-san?" asked one of the ANBU that Noriko didn't recognize.

Noriko turned to face the man, an evil smile gracing her beautiful face.

"Hold up." Said Tsunade, holding up her hand to stall the ANBU. "There's something that I need to give Noriko-chan before we continue."

The ANBU looked a little disconcerted, but nodded and stepped back.

"No-chan, c'mere" beckoned Tsunade, now holding a short wrapped package that had appeared from no where. This package was thin and about one-and-a-half shaku long, wrapped in black silk, decorated with gold and crimson embroidery.

"This…" said Tsunade softly, handing the package to Noriko. "Was your father's, he left it to be given to you on this occasion… There's another part to it, but I'll give that to you after we're done here."

Noriko held the bundle reverently, as though not to break it.

"Go on… Open it" urged the impatient Hokage.

With trembling fingers, Noriko pulled the black silk off, revealing a beautiful wakizashi (short sword), the scabbard was a swirl of gold and jet; the tsuba (hand guard) depicted the image of a black night with three stars cut through the metal, and the actual hilt of the sword was wrapped in a black chord, with the traditional gold ornaments wrapped next to the body of the hilt.

Tsunade, could see the Noriko was shocked, to say the least; and backed away slowly. No one knew what the sword of the Yondaime could do, no one alive had ever seen it in action, they'd all been cut down by the blade.

The Hokage signaled the ANBU, and said, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Begin part three!"

The ANBU rushed toward her, confidant that they would win with ease, after all it was one _kunoichi_ against the eleven of them; the most elite of the Shinobi that Konoha had to offer.

But still Noriko stood there, holding the sword out in front of her. Then, ever so slowly, as the ANBU rushed toward her, kunai and other weapons drawn, she gripped the hilt and turned the blade out toward the incoming ANBU, her eyes blazing with golden fire, blasting out a massive wave of Chakra.

And in a flash of gold, Noriko was gone.

The only thing that had been left was an odd three pronged kunai.

But that was the least of the ANBU's worries, these oddly shaped kunai were flying from every direction, but none of them could see where they were coming from. Kakashi's eyes bulged in their sockets; he knew these kunai all too well…

There was an odd three-toned whistling coming from all around them, Tenten, who was sitting in the stadium seating, immediately stood up, recognizing the sound as only a weapon master could. It was the harmonious whistle of a perfect _tachikaze _(blood groove of a Japanese sword).

Kakashi tried to warn the others, but it was too late, the gold flash was upon them.

With amazing speed and accuracy, Noriko cut down several ANBU with three strokes, leaving only Kakashi, Sasuke, Neji, Lee, and Gai. She looked at them, not even breathing hard, her eyes still ablaze with the same golden fire, the entirety of her eye was gold, no iris, no pupil, nothing but the gold light.

Sasuke had activated his Sharingan, trying to copy what the girl was doing, but as Kakashi knew, and had found before with his teacher, was failing just as miserably as he had. Now his star… former star pupil was doing, Naru- Noriko was, and should've always been his star pupil. Now the former sensei was getting schooled in his own game, by his student, the irony was delicious.

Neji knew that he was going to loose, Noriko was out of his league, though he knew that if he wanted to keep his place on the ANBU squad he would have to try his best not to get himself killed. He activated his Byakugan and settled into his Jyuken stance.

Gai and Lee, being the slightly brainless idiots that they are, rushed headlong into the waiting Noriko, and were struck down with no apparent movement, they just hit the ground on either side of the girl and neither of them moved.

The audience couldn't believe what they were seeing, this girl had almost single handedly taken out the most elite ANBU squad in all of Konoha.

It was Sasuke's turn to be an idiot, and he rushed the kunoichi.

Noriko vanished in a flash of gold as Sasuke reached her, and in another flash of gold, was behind him, this time bringing the sword down upon his back with an almighty slash that knocked him out cold.

Neji's eyes widened, he saw the secret of the kunai, there was as Chakra trail that Noriko could somehow follow. He followed several trails, noting where they were, and unfortunately, five of these trails led to him and seven to Kakashi; nt even counting the other strands that webbed throughout the rest of the clearing, they were trapped.

There wasn't even time for Kakashi to move as the golden flash was upon him, and he went down without even knowing it himself.

It was now that Noriko stopped, the sword, in its scabbard, in her left hand, her right hand hovering over the hilt, ready to attack before Neji would even get past the first movements of his attack. Her tail and ears were buffeted by some phantasmal wind that blew through the clearing, only touching Noriko.

Suddenly, Noriko smirked, and once again, vanished in a golden flash.

Neji sank into a defensive stance that should've provided him with absolute defense, but it was for naught.

Noriko appeared right in front of him, her entire body pressed tightly against his, and…

She kissed him.

End Chapter 2

(1): Noriko here! I'll bet many of you are wondering if my little Aengus is a pervert or something, no he's not. I put in all the bra sizes, and since the character "Noriko" is supposed to me modeled after me (or so Aengus tells me), she has my name after all, I figured that she should, literally, be me, or at least mostly. I don't have blonde hair, though I am quite short and am blessed (or cursed) with a larger chest than most people. So if you want to flame someone, flame me.

Author Notes:

Well… another chapter come and gone, and now we're tired. Once this chapter is posted, we'll begin working on BETAing Anerwyn's _Uzumaki Mikomi_, which is another FemNaruto story that is definitely worth a read, so please go out and read it. On another note, Noriko and I had to scrap what we thought we were going to do with _New Beginnings_ and had to start anew, so that's what's taking so long, though a new chapter should be out by the end of October. Don't expect regular updates on anything because of the demands of being a Senior and being in marching band. Also don't expect any other chapters to be this long… ever again, we just couldn't find an ending.

Cheers

Aengus and Kitsune no Noriko


	3. The End Complete

I don't own Naruto

Hidden in Plain Sight Part 1, Act III: The Fires of Hell

With this final act, we close the first part of the journey of Noriko and the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

_Noriko appeared right in front of him, her entire body pressed tightly against his, and…_

_She kissed him._

The entire crowd went silent at the sight of the Ice King of Konoha being kissed by the blonde beauty. All of the young women that had been proposed to the Hyuuga in the past had been met with the same coldness that one would expect from an iceberg.

And yet…

There he was, slowly returning the kiss that the blonde Kunoichi was giving him. Clearly enjoying it.

Moments later, Noriko slowly pulled back, her eyes fluttering open, her mouth still slightly open from and she was breathing heavily. There was a slight pink blush running over her face as she gazed into Neji's now opening eyes.

Neji was speechless… No dumbfounded… Oh hell, he didn't know what he was; all he knew was that he really enjoyed that kiss.

With a sigh Noriko, pulled back from Neji's warmth.

Neji was still in shock, frozen in place, he had never kissed a girl that was not from his own family, and even then never on the lips like Noriko had just kissed him.

Noriko giggled, Neji was just standing there, staring with wide blank eyes. She shook her head, smiling softly.

"Men…" she sighed, walking around Neji in a tight circle. "When we finally get to the good part he freezes up."

She shook her head again as she stopped walking in front of him.

"Hokage-sama!" she called out suddenly.

"Hmm…?" was the sighed reply, though if Noriko had been looking at her, she would've seen the huge smile that was now splitting the face of the Hokage.

"It the test still on?"

Tsunade looked at the clock that was counting down the time until the end of the test. "Yes… why?"

"Oh… Nothing…" Noriko said airily, brushing some of her golden blonde hair out of her eyes.

The fox-girl knelt down at Neji's feet and with a few quick movements with her hands, tied his ankles together; then as she stood, she removed his kunai and shuriken. Upon standing at her full height tied his hands together.

The poor man was still too shocked to notice that he was in the process of being _hog-tied_.

And with the gentle pressure of one finger on his Neji's forehead, Noriko effectively ended the test, sending Neji to the ground in a heap.

And with the thud that Neji made as he hit the ground, the crowd that had gathered erupted into a tumultuous applause.

Noriko couldn't help but smile even wider, Neji had come to right as he hit the ground. He was bewildered, and had no idea how he had ended up in his current predicament, plus he didn't know why his head hurt.

"I may like you Neji-kun, but I am a kunoichi first." Noriko said to Neji, her voice almost consumed by the applause of the crowd, with a coy smile. She turned to the rest of the ANBU saying, "Thanks for the match guys, though I think that you should practice some more…"

With another smile and a flick of her fox-tail she walked over to Tsunade.

The Hokage smiled at the approaching fox girl, taking another package from a waiting attendant. This one was not as big as the previous nor as heavy, but just as special.

No words were spoken as Noriko got closer to Tsunade; the older woman just swept the Noriko up into a huge hug, the package momentarily forgotten, taken from the Hokage by an assistant before it was dropped.

Tsunade spun around, still holding Noriko in her arms, the two of them laughing.

It was times like these that were in short supply during the Leaf-Sound war, times of pure happiness and laughter that would soon become even rarer in times to come.

Putting Noriko down, Tsunade whispered in her ear. "I'm so proud of you No-chan."

Noriko smiled as she released her hold in the Hokage, smiling, the trace of a tear in her eye.

Louder, so that every one could hear, Tsunade announced; "You have done well Noriko, better perhaps, than those around you may have expected…" Tsunade paused for the small ripples of laughter that rolled through the crowd. The ANBU were still in the process of picking themselves off of the ground, several of them seeing the effects of the traps that Noriko had set fro the first time. "And by the power of my title, as your Godaime Hokage, I grant you, Noriko, the position of special Jounin."

The crowd exploded into applause as an ANBU, wearing his hawk, appeared out of no where holding a Jounin vest.

The Hokage took the vest and handed it to Noriko, who took it from the Hokage but didn't put it on.

The entire crowed waited, many holding their breath.

"You do know that there's no way in hell that I'm going to wear this thing right?" Noriko said, completely serious.

Tsunade just shook her head a wry smile on her face as the attendants sweat dropped.

"I figured that No-chan." Tsunade said, taking the vest from Noriko and handing the fox-girl the package. "In fact I planned on it, the vest isn't even your size."

A ripple of laughter flowed through the crowd, as the hawk ANBU took the vest from his leader.

Noriko didn't hear the laughter; her entire attention was now focused on the package in her arms.

I was smaller that the first one, and much lighter, soft to the touch.

Everyone in the audience had gone silent, not a single soul made any noise.

"You're father left it in Sandaime's care for when you became of age." Tsunade whispered so only she and Noriko could hear. "Even though you turned seventeen some time ago, I figured that I'd wait until the truth was revealed before I gave it to you… It would look rather odd for a young man to be wearing a this…"

Tsunade continued to ramble on, but Noriko had stopped listening to her after the first sentence.

Inside the package was a bundle of soft white material, extremely soft to the touch yet, she could tell that was tougher than it looked. And, with a twist of her wrists, Noriko unfurled the cloth.

It was a white cloak, simple, yet elegant. There were gold and crimson flames embroidered all along the bottom dancing up the cloak about to the mid-back, and running down the spine was the character for Kitsune on it in an archaic script and nine golden foxtail embroidered around the character.

Seeing the way that Noriko ran her finger over the character and the tails, the Hokage said, "I had the character and the tails put on there some years ago."

Without a word Noriko whipped the coat around her shoulders and her arms into the sleeves; some of the adults in the crowd gasped, she looked just like the Yondaime, though, minus the fox appendages and the obvious female anatomy.

It is unfortunate that even the most trained Shinobi of any village drops their guard during times of happiness, for no one noticed the two figures deep within the shadows, bearing the image of a boulder split in half on their uniforms, nor their muffled gasps at seeing the Hiraishin being performed once again before their eyes. The jutsu was legendary among the people of Iwagakure no Sato, and the original user, the Yondaime Hokage of Konoha, infamous. The two Iwa-nins rushed back to their village to report to the Tsuchikage on the latest development, and most importantly, the return of the _Konoha no Kīroi Senkō._

Tsunade, having missed the Iwa-nin like everyone else, turned to her ANBU, most of which were now just waking from the beating that had just been handed to them by a single Kunoichi.

"It seems…" sighed the Gondaime Hokage, her arms crossed under her massive bust. "That the ANBU, my personal guards and the elite warriors of our village have been slacking off in their training."

She looked to Shizune, the young woman had been standing in her shadow during the entire exam. "Do we know the condition of master sergeant Lion?"

The young woman, couldn't help but smile and shake her head, and instead of answering her mentor and teacher, she simply pointed to the edge of the forest.

Everyone followed her finger and watched as two medics emerged from the tree line, carrying a stretcher between them. In the stretcher was what was left of Lion. The man had had both of his arms dislocated and thoroughly broken, it seemed as though Noriko avoided breaking his elbows and fingers, all this including several very large bruises, cuts and other lesions.

Every man winced.

"If anyone tries what he did…" whispered Noriko, leaking enough killing intent to stop a raging bull.

"Now, now No-chan…" admonished Temari, who had gotten up to giver her friend a hug. "Let's play nice with the other children."

A low growl rumbled deep from within the younger woman in front of the Hokage who just laughed and patted her on the head.

And all was well.

A few hours later, sitting in a local restaurant, Noriko was eating a well-deserved meal with her friends, their male counterparts attempting to reverse the affects of Noriko's test. Unlike the other girls around her, Noriko wasn't talking, merely watching them and those in the restaurant.

It felt odd to her that there was no one sending her looks of hate or loathing, instead she was receiving appraising looks from both sexes, keeping a low blush on her cheeks. Unconsciously she kept her hand on her wakizashi as she slowly nibbled off of the grill in the middle of the table.

Temari, sitting to her right, was the only one that noticed her younger friend's withdrawn mood. She put her hand on Noriko's thigh, mouthing to the younger girl, "_What's wrong?_"

Noriko, shook her head, _"Later._"

Temari gently squeezed her thigh and continued as though nothing was wrong, ignoring the feeling in her gut that something was very wrong.

Conversation at the table was light, just a bunch of girls talking about trivial things and how those things were going to change with Noriko. The girl in question just sat there listening to them, wary of the watch that Temari was now keeping over her, and filed the conversation away under the numerous things that she had missed out on being disguised as a boy. Though she would never give up her time as "Naruto," there had always been that little something that she knew was missing from her life.

It was not long before they departed the restaurant, Noriko walking toward her apartment, not noticing that Temari was next to her, odd for the usually ever-vigilant Kunoichi.

"So…" said Temari, bringing her friend out of her thoughts and almost out of her battle kimono.

"DON'T DO THAT!" shrieked Noriko.

"I've been walking next to you ever since we left the restaurant, where you barely said anything to our friends." Said the dessert rose as she helped Noriko off of the ground. "Now, are you going to tell me what has been bothering you, or am I going to have to find out by force?"

Noriko didn't say anything at first, "Something bad is about to happen." She said, in a quiet, almost whisper.

Temari stopped at this, normally there was very little that could dim her young friend's outlook.

"What do you mean?" she asked cautiously, not knowing what to expect.

Noriko just shook her head, "I don't really know. Not yet. There's something in the air and Ni-chan agrees with me, something's not right."

Temari had no reply to say to that, she just pulled the younger girl into an embrace and laid her cheek on the top of Noriko's head, her own emotions in turmoil.

Slowly, the fox-girl returned the hug.

"Is there anything that we can do?"

"I… I don't think so."

The two of them stood there for a while, just holding each other.

**NEJI**

Neji sat in his room at the Hyuuga compound; looking back on Noriko's test and how easily she had defeated him and his fellows…

But his mind kept straying to Noriko herself and his feelings for the fox-girl. What were his feelings and, if he had any and this was not just the influence of hormones, what would he do about them.

It wasn't that hard of a decision to make as he had thought that it would be, he would wait and see what would happen in the coming days. There was no doubt that Noriko held a special place in his heart but what place had yet to be determined.

Heaving a sigh, he got up and went to find his uncle, maybe he would give him advice.

**IWAGAKURE NO SATO**

Rumors had been flying about the village, the yellow flash had returned to their greatest enemy, Konohagakure. It was the village's worst nightmare come true, after the infamous yellow flash had decimated their forces during the last war the village had come to fear the legend.

The Tsuchikage, sat in his office pouring over the report that his spies in Konohagakure had brought him. A new, or the return, of the _Yellow Flash_ would spell the end of his credibility as a leader and the end of his reign as Kage.

"What am I going to do?" The man asked, looking out over his village the air thick with uncertainty. He knew that if he didn't act soon, the people would call for his removal in favor of someone more willing to combat their greatest enemy, and there was only one way out of the chair of the Tsuchikage…

With a great sigh, he signed the form: Iwagakure no Sato was at war with Konohagakure.

His ever-loyal aid, took the document reverently from his leader's hands with a smile on his face and rushed to deliver it to the Jounin commanders.

If only he knew if he had done the right thing.

**KONOHAGAKURE NO SATO**

The village was silent as Noriko sat on the head of her Father's image in the Hokage monument, thinking. She knew, somehow, that something was going terribly wrong and that there was nothing that she could do to stop it, the only problem was that she didn't know what it could be. Itachi was dead, as was Orochimaru, Otogakure had been demolished and its people scattered into the winds, who else could be out there that wished her village harm.

She sighed and stood, stretching as the moon began to set in the distance, it was time to go home. She couldn't help but smile, Temari was asleep on her couch and it would be a pain to get back inside without waking the older kunoichi up; there was just something in going home knowing that there was someone who would be waiting for you.

She had no doubt that Temari would awaken as soon as she opened the window to enter her room, but there was nothing that she could do about that. It would be good to spend more time with her first real friend.

Though Noriko would never admit it to anyone, not even herself, but Temari was the reason that she could love another woman, in more than just as a sister. The desert rose understood her better than anyone else ever had or would, something that she was always looking for and desired. Besides, Kyuubi liked the girl, who needed a better endorsement than that?

The only problem was her uncertainty of her feelings for the Hyuuga prodigy. Neji and Hinata had always bee there for her, Neji more so after their initial attempt at the Chuunin Exams, and the two of them had never shied away from being her friend. Neji was desirable, but could she, a free spirit, confine herself to a life beside a stoic Hyuuga, even if she loved him?

She didn't know.

Temari or Neji?

Only time would be able to tell.

She just missed the glint of moonlight off a rider's armor as she came down off of the monument nor the sound of a messenger being dispatched to the now sleeping Hokage.

**OFFICE OF THE HOKAGE**

It was every Kage's nightmare to receive what she had received: a messenger in the dead of night with a scroll of war. It had been long in coming, thought Tsunade in despair, Noriko had assumed the mantle of the "Konoha no Kīroi Senkō," the _Yellow Flash of Konoha_, that her father had left behind when he died. Even though they had never explicitly said anything about it, she and her predecessor knew that if another had learned the Hiraishin, Iwa would be sent into panic and eventually they would declare war. The Gondaime sighed, wishing that this hadn't come so soon after the war with sound, Konoha was not prepared with enough forces to hold off an invasion of an entire village right now, especially not one so militaristic as Iwagakure.

She had to admit, the Tsuchikage had been honorable enough to send his intentions, giving them some time to prepare. The current Tsuchikage was not an old war hawk like the last one had been, he was more level minded; Tsunade knew that if he hadn't signed the declaration of war, the Tsuchikage would have been assassinated and another war monger would have come into power and ambushed the unsuspecting Konoha shinobi.

With a movement she had never hoped to use, Tsunade activated the seal on her desk; the invasion alarm began to ring out, within the next hour, the civilians would be evacuated to a safe location in a neighboring village or such, leaving the shinobi to defend the home without worrying about collateral damage to the civilians themselves.

Tsunade pulled a map of the village and the surrounding lands from her bottom drawer and began to plan their defense as she waited for her tacticians to arrive.

**NORIKO**

As soon as the first sound of the alarm had gone off, Noriko and Temari were on their feet weapons in hand.

Noriko's eyes widened as she realized that the feeling in her gut was getting worse; it was right.

Temari looked at Noriko in confusion, there was no such system in Sunagakure.

"Invasion." Noriko answered the unasked question, getting dressed and grabbing her father's sword.

Temari's eyes widened as well had she realized what was happening, Konoha was in serious trouble and there was very little that she could do to help them. Sure she could fight for them, and she would, but if this were a full-scale invasion, then she would die fighting for this village.

Strangely, that did not disturb her as much as she thought it should. She would fight, and she would die to protect Konoha, Gaara would have done the same. Did she not love this village as her own? Would she not fight for the people of this village, her friends, her loved ones, for Noriko, as the girl had once fought and almost died for her and her village.

Steeling herself for what was to come, Temari grabbed her fan from the wall next to the door.

"Let's go." Was all she said.

Tsunade had not bothered to give them a speech, the look in her eyes said enough, and what had not been said was spoken for by the history of bad blood between Iwagakure and Konohagakure. There would be no prisoners, no mercy; it was an "us or them" moment. Thankfully the most powerful of Konoha's shinobi had been in the village for Noriko's test earlier that day and had ample time to recuperate their chakra.

So there they stood, on the ramparts of the wall, the "Rookie Nine" as they were sometimes still called, Lee, Gai, Tenten, Neji, Kakashi, several ANBU and Noriko with Temari by her side, overlooking the oncoming army.

Iwagakure was not know for their stealth, but their prowess in battle, there was no need, or way, to hide any army of this size, the early sun glinting off of their weapons and armor. In the center, on a great chariot, stood the mighty Tsuchikage, looking like a man who had already conquered the village in front of him.

There was no point in sending out a messenger to meet the oncoming force, is would simply be a waste of a good soldier.

Like there was an invisible wall, the Iwagakure pooled around the village leaving a great open field.

And before anyone could act, there was a great cry from several voices "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

With a great explosion of chakra smoke the open field was lined with an assortment of summoned creatures; dogs, frogs, slugs, weasels carrying scythes, and thousands of foxes of various sizes.

And, without warning, Iwa charged.

**IN THE MIDST OF BATTLE**

It was obvious that they, Konoha, was not going to win this war, from the very beginning, they were doomed, even the strength of the Kyuubi was not enough to turn the tide.

Soon the call to retreat to within the walls of the village was sounded, and even those would not hold out for long.

Noriko looked at her friends, they were all breathing hard, even the lazy Shikamaru, some were bleeding, Choji had been stabbed in the stomach by several Iwa katana, the medics doubted that he would live to see the next few hours. Lee was cradling a broken arm and Gai was missing.

The only who looked unscathed was Temari, and that was only because she had been fighting alongside Noriko, and the fox girl had taken care of anyone who had attempted to attack one of her blind spots.

They were all breathing hard, scared and broken shells of the shinobi that they had been, it hurt Noriko to see them like this, these people where her friends, whether they knew it or not, and it was supposed to be her job to protect them.

Noriko, sighed and rested her head against the wall to her back, closing her eyes waiting for the next wave of attacks.

Tsunade, who was wishing that she could be down at the walls, helping her village fight off the Iwa advance was stuck in a make-shift command post, listening to two, hysterical, yet pompous council members; both of whom were trying to control the Konoha forces.

"We must attack them!" shouted the one on the right, his squat face flushed with anger.

"They will not be expecting it!" shrieked the woman to the left. "If we attack we can finish off the Iwagakure vermin!"

It had been going on for the last half hour and Tsunade was growing tired of it.

"Will you shut up." Hissed the Hokage, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

The two council members, sputtered in indignation, they had never been spoken to like this before, not even the great Sandaime dared.

"I am in control of this army. The council has no power of the shinobi of the village, never has, I have been content to let you have your rope; now you have hung yourself."

With a wave of her hand, a two jounin appeared in the room.

"I ordered the evacuation of all civilians, these two have disobeyed. Arm them; in not evacuating they have expressed a desire to fight for their village. Ensure that they do not escape from their new duties."

The two jounin, smirked at the thought, and quickly dragged the two council members away, ignoring their screams of outrage and attempts at overruling the Hokage.

Iwa continued their attack the next dawn, continuously throwing themselves at the walls with grim efficiency and abandon and the great gate that locked the village from the outside would not hold much longer.

Noriko could only watch in horror as Lee fell, utterly destroyed by the Iwa jutsu; Ino rushed to the body of her beloved, slaughtering any and all Iwa shinobi standing in her way only to be cut down herself as she scooped Lee's body into her arms.

This is what she had feared, in the deepest part of her mind, her greatest strength was also her greatest weakness: her loved ones.

Sadly, Lee and Ino were not the last.

Tenten, in her grief in the passing of Choji earlier that night, threw herself into the battle only to be felled by an enemy ANBU.

Shikamaru never made it off of the wal; Iwa archers had killed him, along with dozens of others.

A loud crack split the air, the battle stopped and every shinobi, Iwa and Konoha alike stared.

The gate of Konohagakure had fallen.

Even though Iwa's forces were dwindling, they pushed on into the village.

**THAT NIGHT**

Somehow, the Konoha forces had pushed Iwa out, and were trying to recover their defenses. They were a small band of ragtag shinobi now, their former glory lost and the resolve gone.

Tsunade gazed over the last bits of her forces in agony, she had been forced to fight when Iwa had breached the walls and was paying for it in spades. A traitorous mixture of her jewel regeneration and being pierced by several Iwa spears had almost killed her; there was nothing that she could do.

Slowly, she called forth one of her loyal slugs.

"If I fall," the Gondaime said softly, so as not demoralize the remainder of her forces. "Initiate phoenix."

The eyes of the slug widened, _phoenix_ was the standard Konoha operation should the village ever become compromised, when initiated, seals that had been created in the foundations of the village itself would destroy the Hokage Mountain and tower, the clan districts, and the library, forever preserving the secrets of the leaf.

Iwagakure knew what they were doing, a standard three day siege. Gauge the opponents, get in and demoralize, then finish the job.

Only after Iwa had retreated did they realize the scope of the damage left in the wake. Iwa had destroyed the makeshift hospitals and the actual one; Noriko had dug in the ruins only to find Hinata, Sakura and Sasuke dead, crushed when the building fell. Sasuke was only there bringing injured comrades back alive from the battle. Kiba, Kakashi, Shino and several other ANBU and the jounin sensei had vanished into the fray, in the direction of the Tsuchikage.

Noriko sat in between Neji and Temari, the last of her precious people to live, and even they were not without their wounds; Neji had lost one of his precious eyes and Temari was covered in burns.

Iruka had been with the civilians when they were evacuated, he had been deemed one of the few to protect the true heart of the village in a time of crisis, the one thing that Noriko had thought that the council had gotten right in their entire time of existing.

Some had thought it odd that they had not heard from Jiraiya during the entire invasion, but Noriko knew that he would not get there in time. In truth, she didn't want him to come, even though he was a _sannin_, even he couldn't turn the tide of this invasion.

_'There's really not much that we can do about this kit…'_ came the haunting voice of the Kyuubi, intruding into her host's thought.

'I know that…' came the quiet reply from Noriko, 'but I have to help them. This is my home.'

_'You know that I will have to take steps to ensure your happiness? Even if it means using for force.'_

Without a reply to Kyuubi, Noriko stood, griping her sword and began walking to the destroyed gate.

"wha…?" came from all around her.

With a flourish, Noriko spun, drawing her sword and holding it above her head, the now rising sun glinting off of the polished blade, it looked like liquid fire.

"We make our stand, not as cowering rats, but like true Konoha shinobi, our will of fire burns greatly within our hearts." She said in a loud voice, booming over the village and into the Iwa camps, her friends watching her, awed, by her presence and conviction. "Though we may fall, we shall make them, and all the world remember us. To remember why we died, a hope for our loved ones; that they may live and be free. Let them quake and huddle, sheer terror gripping tight their hearts with icy fingers, knowing full well what merciless horrors they suffered at the hands of Konoha. The enemy outnumber us a paltry ten to one; good odds for any shinobi. _Give thanks my friends! To Konoha and her brave shinobi! __**TO VICTORY!**_"

With her last cry, she turned and raced toward the Iwa camp, the last bits of the Konoha shinobi right on her heals.

This was the end.

When stories would be told of this final battle, all around the world, Noriko's speech inspired and brought hope to the oppressed and broken. The Konohagakure shinobi had become what Orochimaru could not and what Iwagakure had hoped to prevent: immortal. For they, those precious few, would be remembered until the end of time in the hearts of all people, their sacrifice would be the end of the feuding between villages, and the safety of millions.

Whatever the Tsuchikage had been expecting from the Konoha shinobi, a final charge had not been amongst his speculations, and by gauging the reactions that his forces had, they were not either; the Konohan last stand was upon them before they had even had a chance to get ready. The guards were dead before they even had a chance to sound what little alarm was needed. Within a few seconds the odd had almost evened but the Iwa-nins had regained their advantage.

Shinobi, on both sides of the battle field, were dropping like flies. Temari was blasting her opponents with all of her strength, Neji struck with deadly accuracy closing the tenketsu that would cause an instant death, and Noriko was vanishing ad reappearing in flashes of gold, killing as many opponents as she could with the fewest strikes. Tsunade, though fading fast, was decimating the few who dared to challenger her; in the back of her mind, she didn't know how much longer she could keep her seal activated.

It was all for naught.

Soon, the last few Konoha shinobi were sounded; Noriko, Neji, Temari, as barely standing Tsunade, two mortally wounded jounin and a chuunin. Neji was suffering from extreme chakra exhaustion and he was bleeding all over his body. Temari, suffering from all of her burns, was failing as well, her arms could no longer swing her great battle fan with the gusto that she had once bee known for and had resolved herself to use everything else in her inventory.

Noriko could see the pain in their eyes, and could feel her own.

The Tsuchikage approached them, his eyes alight, gripping his own katana; thought he had lost most if not all of his men, those that remained formed this circle, he had won, done the impossible: he had razed Konoha.

"Give up." Was all that the Tsuchikage said. "You have lost, die with what little honor you have left."

With a snarl, Neji leapt at the kage, his Byakugan blazing and chakra erupting from his fingertips, the chuunin and jounin leaping at the shinobi making up the circle, intent on making a hole for their Hokage. Without changing his expression, the Tsuchikage removed Neji's head from his shoulders, the arterial gush ruining his formerly immaculate robes; Neji's head rolled to a stop before Noriko, his lifeless eyes staring up at her.

"No…" gasped Noriko, tear brimming in her eyes.

The Tsuchikage smiled at the apparent breaking of the kunoichi in front of him, everything had come together; though he doubted initially the viability of the plan, he knew that it was all for the best.

What he didn't count on was that he was facing a Jinchūriki nor that he had killed one of the people that this Jinchūriki loved.

Without warning, Noriko leapt that the Tsuchikage, her own sword flashing, Kyuubi's chakra bursting out of her.

It took everything that the Tsuchikage had to block the strike aimed at his neck and even then, he was forced back by the sheer ferocity of the attack.

The two of them fought with all of their might, ignoring last few sparks of fighting that was happening around them.

Attack.

Parry.

Block.

Counterattack.

Attack.

And such it continued without pause.

Noriko fighting for her love and the Tsuchikage fighting for dominance.

There was no clear better swordsman, just a need to win. The Tsuchikage's eyes mocked her in her grief, his smirk infuriated and his very existence insulted.

Kyuubi could only watch the battle from deep within Noriko's mind, her chakra healing the minor wounds that the Tsuchikage scored, racking her mind to find an escape for Noriko, ensuring her happiness.

With a final twanging, Noriko cut through the Tsuchikage's, rending the man in half, from his head to his groin, his expression set forever in a grim smirk. The two halves of a once proud man fell to the ground with a small 'thump.'

There was no more sound on that field of death.

No clashing of shinobi, no wind, no sun, nothing.

Though she knew that she would regret it, Noriko looked behind her back, with sadness she could see the now fallen Tsunade, her all-but mother, and the bodies of her fellow Konoha shinobi and their blood that colored the field.

She couldn't look at Neji's body, it was too painful, the very thought that he was dead did not compute in her mind.

From the silence, there was a gasp of pain.

Noriko whirled to see the dying Temari on her back only a few feet away. In an instant, Noriko was beside her friend, cradling her to her chest.

"… Did we… win…?" gasped Temari in pain, her life blood pooling on to Noriko.

Though tears were rolling out of her eyes, Noriko smiled and nodded, fighting back sobs.

Temari smiled, her hand reaching up to cup the fox-girl's cheek, Noriko grasping it in her own hands, nuzzling it with her cheek.

"I wish… I… wish… that we h-had… had more, t-t-time…"

"We do!" chocked out Noriko, holding on to Temari like a lifeline. "We have all the time in the world. I-I-I can help! I'll heal you!"

Temari shook her head. "No. I-I-I-I'm dying, an-and there's nothing… you can do."

"I-I can't loose you t-t-t-t-too."

"You'll never lose me, No-No-chan." Temari's voice was growing softer. "Y-y-you'll always have me i-i-in your heart."

This time, Noriko didn't hold back her sob.

A wry smile crossed Temari's face.

"I… I l-love you, No… Noriko."

Kyuubi could feel Noriko's heart breaking as she heard those words, her own along with it; it steeled her resolve and the fox demon began to gather her yokai, her demonic chakra; only it would do what she needed to do, an act against the very gods.

"I-I-I-I love y-y-you t-too Tem..ari-chan." Sobbed Noriko, holding Temari even closer to her chest, kissing the kunoichi's bloodied forehead.

With a beatific smile on her face, Temari died, her hand falling from the fox-girl's cheek into the dust.

It broke Noriko.

She looked to the heavens and howled in pain and despair.

A howl that was heard all over the world, sending shivers down the spines of men and women alike, no had heard such a mournful sound before, and hoped to never hear it again. In the time when all of enemies had been neutralized, Konohagakure had fallen.

With a heavy heart, Noriko stood, still holding Temari's broken body, as several summoned foxes appeared all around her.

Without a command, the Kitsune began to separate Konoha shinobi from the Iwa and began to bury the fallen leaves; the Hokage, the rookie nine, and Noriko's friends next to each other. The Iwa-nins were burned in a great pile some distance away from the remainder of Noriko's home, the black smoke pillar a testament to the atrocities that had occurred.

Noriko turned toward Sunagakure, intent on bringing Temari home; as she left, larger Kitsune, accompanied by toads, and slugs raised a new memorial stone one which was a likeness of Noriko and her blade, her speech boldly displayed for all time with the people that meant so much the fox-girl on the reverse.

**SUNAGAKURE**

Gaara was worried, when he had heard of the battle at Konoha, he had not heard anything from his sister. Sadly, by the time that he heard of the invasion, it was already too late and eh knew it. If Temari had gotten out of the village she would have made it back to Suna long ago, and if she had survived the siege, there would have been a message; even if she had fallen, something would have come to him by now.

For the first time since the death of the Akatsuki, Gaara worried.

He of course knew Noriko's secret, the two of them were so alike in many ways there was nothing that they hadn't shared with each other, Noriko's secret gender or Gaara's deep-seated fear of _Namahage_, boogey men. The two of them had spent many an evening in Suna and Konoha alone just talking, there were no boundaries between them, Gaara knew that Noriko would struggle over her love for both the stoic Hyuuga, whose name escaped him, and his sister. Temari would be safe with Noriko.

He hoped.

He was about to get up from his desk and look out his window, down upon his village, when his aid came bursting through his door.

"Kazekage-sama! You must come quick!"

Gaara didn't question, didn't say anything, he only followed the frantic aid to the gates that led to his village, wondering what could cause such a commotion. The entirety of his shinobi and kunoichi were here, his brother, Kankuro, included.

Upon his arrival, Kankuro raised one arm to point into the distant dessert.

Gaara followed, leveling his gaze into the distance,

A pillar of black smoke was rising on the horizon and through the haze was a figure.

As the figure drew closer, Gaara could tell that, whoever it was, they were carrying a body, wrapped in a white cloth of some kind. As the person drew closer, the sun glinted off the walker's blonde hair.

Gaara's heart sank.

Either it was his sister, bringing the news of Noriko's death and her body, or Noriko bringing Temari home to rest. And though he hated to admit it, Gaara knew, he knew that it was the latter. No Jinchūriki could ever dream to hold off an entire village on their own, even one as strong as Noriko and Kyuubi were.

Tears rolled down Gaara's face as Noriko enter the village, those who had crowed the entrance parting to allow her through, saying nothing. They followed Noriko as she passed them, Gaara and his brother the first among them, their faces solemn in their grief.

No one noticed the storm clouds gathering over the village as Noriko passed, the silent procession of Suna shinobi behind her.

Finding her way to just outside the village, Noriko watched as the rock and sand moved of its own accord, leaving a suitable grave for her the loved one in her arms.

Gently, Noriko laid Temari in the grave, placing one last kiss on her forehead and stood, watching in grim fascination as the rock closed over her fellow blonde.

Noriko could feel Kyuubi finishing her preparations as rain began to fall.

The Sunagakure shinobi watched, rain blurring their vision, as a tall tombstone rose from where Temari had been laid to rest, the rain water making the inscription all the easier to read.

With a wry, sad smile, Noriko read aloud the inscription:

_Let all the world remember,_

_The greatest sacrifice of love,_

_Given from Wind and Sand to_

_Fire and leaf_

Without warning, Noriko was encased in blue light, Kyuubi had defied the gods, and she vanished, her last words could be heard on whispering winds

"Good-bye Gaara… take care of your village for me."

**END**

Author's note:

There you have it, the end of Hidden in Plain Sight Part 1, after almost three years here it is.

I figured that it was time to get over the feelings that were left over when Noriko left and put forth the work that you see here. I'm not sorry if it doesn't live up to your expectations, but for the next part to make any sort of sense, it had to end this way, and Noriko (Naruto) had to loose everything and everyone. If you wonder about the yuri aspect of the end… it will make more sense in part 2.

Until next time readers:

Aengus


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